Rotorua

I have been contemplating hospitality and the culture surrounding it.  How many of us would have invited a stranger to our home, fed and housed them,  driven them 3 hours to another town, shared a hotel room and a weekend with them?  My kiwi host (pictured above) is the cousin of an acquaintance of mine, so to be fair, there was a prior connection, though tenuous. I am finding the kiwi welcoming and inviting.

On Friday,  I traveled by passenger  ferry to Pine Harbor, south of Auckland.  I was met by my soon-to-be-traveling companion who drove me to her home overlooking wetlands and was treated to a magnificent sunset over Auckland Harbor accompanied by a cacophony of birdsong.  Saturday morning we rose early and drove in the rain to Rotorua, stopping in Cambridge and later in Tirau to shop, only to find we were too early.  I did like these shop buildings...

We toured the site of this year's World Rowing Regatta which will be held in October in Cambridge.  We reached our destination, Rotorua, at 9:20, in time for some coffee in the heart of town.





Rotorua is one of the most volcanically active areas in NZ with daily earthquakes (usu <2 on the Richter scale), geysers, boiling mud, and the scent of sulphur suffusing the air.   We did drive out of town to Blue Lake for a hike among the native kiwi forest full of Ponga (palms) and tui birds.

While my host's son played basketball, I toured a wildlife bird sanctuary and a Maori village.  There I witnessed a Maori dance after which they insisted on getting pictures taken with the dancers.  More touristy than I would have chosen for myself, but there you have it.

The weekend passed quickly and I am back in Auckland.  Glad to be "home" and yet eager to get started in my job and my routine.