On to Rotorua (days 44 and 45)

After leaving the ferry at Wellington, I drove north as far as Taihape, some 200k out of Wellington.  The weather was absolutely atrocious for the first 100k.  It was raining so hard that the wipers couldn’t really cope. Coupled with the rain flooding on the road and the fact that I hit the Wellington rush hour, driving was most unpleasant.  However, I wanted to push on so that I could cover both Rotorua and the Glow Worm Caves at Waitomo the following day, before finally driving right up to the north, to meet up with Mike and Blanche.

I really enjoyed the stop at Rotorua, seeing the geysers and the mud pools. But mostly it was the Maori guide who made it so interesting.   He was a rather well-built chap, in his thirties, with some sort of comb in his hair.  Not only was he very intelligent and most articulate, but he also had a particularly engaging manner, with a gentle sense of humour.  In the hour and half we were with him, he told us a lot about Maori history, culture and customs and I only wish I could remember it all. For what it’s worth, here are a few of the things he told us that I can remember:

• Maori measure time in generations and they are not too sure how to translate one generation into years.
• Each Maori can trace his ancestors on both the male and female side, right back to the time of first settling in New Zealand, but only father of father of father etc. and mother of mother of mother etc.
• Depending on the number of years allocated to a generation, this means that the Maori first colonised New Zealand somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago.
• The Maori originally came from the Polynesian Islands (Tonga, Samoa, etc.) and they can still more or less understand each other’s language.
• When Maori are born, they usually have a blue marks on their lower back, which disappear after some weeks.   Apparently this is caused by a dominant gene, which is also shared with Polynesians, Japanese, Mongolians, ethnic Tawainese (but not the Chinese settlers) and some Indians.
• Many aspects of their culture appear to be taken from places as disparate as Chile, Peru, Egypt and even Greece.  This includes things such as patterns used for tattoos.
• There was no written Maori language and the early western colonisers transcribed the Maori language phonetically, but not getting the split into words correctly.  All Maori words end in a vowel, but the missionaries wrote down a whole bunch of words as a single word, much like a Welsh station name.
• Ownership of things is not so important to Maori, but they do have an interesting concept of‘mine’ or ‘ours’.  They use two separate words, one reflecting things that are smaller than or are controlled by the owner, the other reflecting things that are larger or controlling.   These ideas can be applied to all objects and we were tested on which form to use for a variety of things.  For example, a nephew is ‘owned by’ someone since he is junior to the uncle, in a generational sense, even though he may be larger in size (or even older).
• As I understood it, Maori do not believe in a God or Gods in the quite the same way as other cultures. They do believe in heaven, or rather a succession of heavens, at different levels, but they don’t prey to a God nor leave offerings or sacrifices.
• In New Zealand, all races are supposed to go through the same school system (although, listening to a debate in Parliament today, one member was suggesting that less money should be spent on so-called Maori schools).
• Maori traditions and legends are passed down through the generations, with art being used to provide memory aids.  A Maori picture or sculpture will include all the essential elements of the story to which it relates Thus the art would have little relevance without knowledge of the underling story, but does provide a very good aide memoire.
• According to our guide, the real difference in education is between ‘scientific’ (i.e. western) and ‘kinesthetic’ (i.e. Maori) teaching methods, the latter relating to learning by touch.

I’d been warned that the sulphurous smell was overpowering, but I really didn’t find it to be too bad.  When we were standing by the meeting point, I thought it was the toilets I could smell. As I went round the site, I caught the normal sulphurous smell, but also the toilet smell again, so I’m not really sure what was what, but none of it was really that overpowering.

I was at the Te Puia site, New Zealand's premier Maori cultural centre.  The whole site is situated in the middle of a volcano crater and includes two large geysers, the Prince of Wales (sic) and Pohutu.   I presume that the first geyser must have been named after the Prince, followingn a visit there, but it is unusual in that nearly all towns and places, other than the large towns and cities, have Maori names.  The Pohutu geyser is the larger and spouts up to thirty metres, although it wasn't that high when I was there.  The geysers are caused by underground river water building up above the heated rocks and suddenly breaking out in a mass of sulphurous steam.

In contrast, the mud pools are where subterranean gas percolates through the mud, heating it as it goes and making lots of little bubbles.   Apparently, the mud pools are at their most impressive immediately after heavy rain, once the mud has been smoothed over.

The Waikomo Glow Worm caves were interesting, but quite different.  I’d recently seen caves in Vietnam and Cambodia and not been at all impressed.  These were unlike anything I’d seen before. Firstly, they were quite large and included a lot of stalactites and stalagmites.  More importantly, the glow worms were really impressive.  They hang above the underground rivers, particularly where they feed off insects, such as mosquitoes.   They emit light when they’re in the larva stage, which lasts about nine months.  That’s when they’re active and build little nests hanging from the roof. They then drop a thin, sticky thread, much like a spider’s web, that is used to catch unsuspecting inspects that have been attracted to the light.

The pupa stage lasts about two months and when they emerge from the cocoon, they look much like mosquitoes, but without mouths.  They only last for four days and in that time have to find a mate. The female lays up to a hundred eggs, which then subsequently become larvae and so the cycle repeats.

When underground, it is surprising how much light the glow worms emit, and, with all torches switched off, they provide enough light to see most of what’s happening in the caves.  They are especially impressive when viewed from beneath, when all you can see is a mass of light points, each one being generated by a single glow worm.

I ended that day driving as far north as I could, but finally giving in at Te Awamutu, some way south of Hamilton.  The motel was not great, but I spent an hour trying to find anywhere that had vacancies. It seems that all the local motels were pretty much fully booked, largely by people who are working here on contract.

I ate dinner (very cheaply) in a local pub, served by a Maori guy who sounded incredibly gay. Is this common in Maori communities?  I didn’t like to ask him straight out, but I did make several comments about women, none of which invoked any sort of ‘normal’ response, so maybe I was right.

I’d hoped to eat n the restaurant which was attached to the pub, but it had been taken over by the Rotary Club (so like England).  Instead, I ate in the main bar, which turned out to be a good choice as I was frequently met by guys coming in from the outside patio, where there were several groups of workers drinking and becoming increasingly vocal.  This included some people from the UK and Ireland who’d come over to work with the harvest in the summer.

One thing that surprised me was the poster for the Kihikihi Rodeo, which apparently happens every year.   I didn’t know that Kiwis were into Rodeo, but apparently they are.  The barman even said that his nephew had recently represented New Zealand in some international competition in Australia.