NZ The day after the previous day!

For some reason, unknown to this man and woman, we had trouble with this blog page and could not get the captions and photos in the correct order. Guess that is why most computers are called 'FRED'.

One of the amazing facts about this village is that there is a part of the settlement called the hidden village. Apparently 100 or so years ago there was an eruption and nearly all of the village was covered, some parts actually sunk, by volcanic ash. Only a small %age survived but rebuilt the village in the same area.

Modern village house

Meeting house circa 1940

The young warrior has no tattoos as he is 'smart'!

This Maori was hilarious, pulled funny faces all the time.

The your girl and the young warrior (in a previous photo) sung a traditional Maori love song. Beautiful voices.

This is called 'Blue Pool'

Yes, it means something!

Yellow, oozing sulphur, but pools were incredibly clear.

As you can see, sulphurous clouds are everywhere. 

The water in this pool is actually boiling.

This geyser erupts at regular intervals

Same geyser.

 

We found a stand of Californian Redwoods

Tree in autumn colours.

On to Rotorua for the night.  We pulled into Holdens Bay Park, the very one Brendan and I had visited in 1993, though some changes had been made.  

 And true to form, Terry (overweight!) broke a chair!


 

Tiki with tougue straight out is a threatning posture

The odour of sulphur permeates the whole town; this is in the centre of the village

Depicture of an original Maori 'sleeping' hut

These wooden sides constructions are dotted throughout the whole village. The steam is at a constant temperature and they know exactly how long it takes to cook food.

The water in this pool is absolutely crystal clear, but is always just below boiling point. The villagers use this pool to cook/boil their vegies.

The water from this pool slowly overflows - the villagers have built little channels that direct the water to bathing areas.The families/whole village bathe en-mass; but with discretion. The females go to the bathing area wearing a towel - they entering the bathing pools backwards, slowly lifting the towel until they are completely immersed. The males do it in a similar manner but they enter the water forwards. The village was going to host an Australian Junior Rugby team and teach them how to bathe, minus females. Apparently the best experience is to bathe when it is pouring rain.

Once more I apologise to all of our faithfull readers for getting all of this page out of order!!!!!!!!!!!

But I end this page on a happier note