Our trip to New Zealand, part 3: On Sunday 2 of Mr. Wonderful’s Adobe coworkers rented a car and the 4 of us drove 2.5 hours to the Maori stronghold of Rotorua. The town is built over a mini-Yellowstone of hot springs, mud pools and scalding geysers. A bit too close to volcanic activity for my comfort, but the Maori are a culture of warriors. Balls of steel and all that. Te Puia owns a large chunk of the more active volcanic features and houses a living museum of Maori cultural. We shot video of the big geyser errupting (up to 30 m), saw the endangered Kiwi bird (those suckers move fast!), and took in a Maori cultural performance (poi and warrior dance, again).

I shot some cool footage of the cultural performance. These are really short clips, but enough to give you a general idea. The first is of the opening ceremony, where a man from the tourist “tribe” (in our case a huge guy from Tasmania) stared down a warrior from the host Maori tribe. The second is part of the opening singing number. Note the purdy harmonies.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcPSYzpNzzg]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKtR5Pbof5o]

Monday I wandered around Auckland again and had High Tea at the Langham Hotel. Am considering a new category: High Teas of the World. I might despise monarchy, but, boy!, do I love those Victorian remnants.

Tuesday we flew to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. I stayed in that night and read. After a week one needs a break from the exhausting adventures of vacation. Wednesday Sweetie flew to Australia, and I met my blogging/twitter friend Sarah (AKA rainonroof)!!! It is so much fun having book friends the world over! She showed me around her city. We saw the Beehive and Parliament, climbed up for 360 degree view from the top of Victoria Hill, and strolled through a funky shopping district. She even found me New Zealand yarn. We had a great time chatting about books, books and more books.