© Richard Randall

Caribbean

Sundries

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

The city is divided into four downtown districts, The Lambton Quarter, The Willis Quarter, The Cuba Quarter, and The Courtenay Quarter. Lambton is good for department stores and boutiques, Willis is good for lifestyle shopping, Cuba is good for alternative lifestyle shopping and pavement cafes, and Courtenay is the home of entertainment, with lively bars and cafes, restaurants and night-clubs. As the home of New Zealand government, there are lots of interesting buildings to visit, including The Beehive and the debating chamber. Wellington is the place to see the performing arts, especially ballet and musical performances. The centre of the city has about 50 private cable cars, these are the only way the residents can gain access to their homes. There is also the New Zealand Astronomy Centre, and The Botanic Garden. By The Botanic Garden is Tinakori Road, which is Katherine Mansfield’s birthplace, New Zealand’s most famous writer. The street is lined with restored wooden houses, shops and excellent places to eat. Katherine’s house has been restored to how it would have been when she grew up there, complete with an authentically replanted old English cottage garden. Nearby in Mulgrave Street is Old St Paul’s Cathedral, it is an excellent example of an 1866 Gothic church, with beautiful stained glass windows. Other places of interest include the National Library Te Puna Matauranga O Aotearoa, and The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Apparently there are now more places to eat per head of population in Wellington than in New York. It is said that you could eat at a different place every day for well over a year in Wellington, that’s a lot of eating! Mum and I walked round Wellington loaded with bags full of shopping, before catching the train back home to Upper Hutt. We thoroughly enjoyed our day out, but we were very tired and ready to sit down and relax once we got back to my aunty’s house. The next place we wanted to visit was Rotorua. Mum wanted to hire a car and drive up there. My aunty said we should take her car, as long as mum did all of the driving. So all three of us set off for Rotorua.

ROTORUA ~

Te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahumatamomoe

Located on the southern shore of Lake Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty region. The Bay of Plenty was named by Captain James Cook during his circumnavigation of New Zealand in 1769. Kahumatamomoe is the name of an uncle to the man who named the area, Rotorua literally translated means second lake. Half of the population are Maori. Rotorua has an amazing range of weird ecosystems, including geysers, hot springs, mud pools, volcanoes, forests, lakes, and wetlands. Rotorua is a spa resort, the area is known for geothermal activity, botanical gardens, and some interesting historical architecture. There are lots of geysers and hot mud pools in the city, which are the main attractions for the many tourists who visit the area each year. The Hydrogen Sulphide gas produced by the geothermal activity smells rather nasty. The odour which is stronger during cool wet weather, is just like rotten eggs. Our journey was really good, the roads were empty for most of the way, and the scenery was breathtaking. We drove by lush green fields, with snow capped mountains in the distance. Even though it was a beautifully warm sunny day as we approached Rotorua, the egg odour was still rather strong, yuk! As usual I can’t remember which hotel we stayed at, it was lovely though. There was an outdoor swimming pool and wonderful hot jacuzzi. Our room was large, which was just as well as all three of us shared it! My mummy and aunty had proper beds, whilst I slept on a camp bed, not exactly what I was expecting! Oh well, it was only for a night or two, we had more interesting things to do. We wanted to get out and see some of the geysers and mud pools. The region has six main thermal areas, Whakarewarewa, Waimangu, Waiotapu, Orakei Korako, Wairakei and Hell’s Gate (Tikitere). Waimangu Volcanic Valley has beautiful blue steaming waters. Waiotapu has ochre coloured waters in its Champagne Pool, a unique cascade of mineral water and terraced silica formations at the Bridal Veil Falls. Hell’s Gate is the place to relax and enjoy its soothing thermal hot pools. We visited Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve and the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute whilst we were in Rotorua, which is situated in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. It was the site of the Maori fortress of Te Puia which was originally inhabited around 1325. The Maori people have lived in the area since then, using the geothermal activity in the valley for cooking and heating. There are around 500 pools at Whakarewarewa, most of them are alkaline chloride hot springs. We saw lots of geyser vents, apparently there are over 65 there, though only a few of them are active. The most famous geyser is called Pohutu, which means explosion or big splash. The Pohutu geyser usually erupts every hour and can erupt up to 30 metres 100 feet skyward, impressive. The Pohutu eruption is usually directly after the smaller Prince of Wales Feathers geyser which reaches about 12 metres. The thermal features at Whakarewarewa were severely affected by the local residents, who were digging shallow wells in order to extract hot water for heating. This resulted in a bore closure programme in the late 1980’s and over 200 of the wells were cemented shut, and the geysers and hot springs made a significant recovery. My mummy, aunty and I decided that we would walk around Whakarewarewa without a guide, we preferred to do things at our own pace. Surprisingly we soon got used to the scent of sulphur in the air, after a while we couldn’t smell it at all. There were quite a few people walking round enjoying the various erupting geysers. The weather was gloriously warm and we had a good relaxing day. You could also learn about the traditional arts and culture of the Maori people, and watch demonstrations of carving and weaving. Tribal history says that Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley was where the goddesses of fire, Te Pupu and Te Hoata emerged from the earth’s core inhaling and exhaling which created the geysers, mud pools and hot springs. One evening in Rotorua all three of us decided to go to a Hangi, which is a traditional Maori banquet. A Hangi would originally have taken place in the presence of honoured guests, but with so many tourists visiting Rotorua these events are popular at most hotels for everyone to enjoy. There were quite a few people at the hangi we attended but not too many. We were seated together at tables in groups of about 6 people. Mum and I got chatting to a young couple from Japan, they were on their honeymoon, and we are still in touch with them all these years later. I don’t remember the food, other than that it was tasty. We spent most of the evening talking to our new Japanese friends. Once the food had been served and cleared away the cultural part of the evening began. The room was plunged into near darkness, and we could just make out the shapes of figures entering the room. Then some soft low lighting came on and in front of our tables were about a dozen men and women. They were all dressed in flax skirts, the women had flowers covering their top halves, and the men had their faces painted with black Maori designs. We were treated to several different traditional haka (dances) and songs by the men and women. The songs had been altered slightly for mainstream enjoyment. Truly original Maori songs are not songs in the sense that we think of songs. They would be more like chants and different beats, and not considered as suitable entertainment for today's tourists. These events are set up to fit our expectations, as we perceive Maori culture to be. In a way it’s a shame that we don’t get to see the true Maori culture, but I guess if they did try to sell that to the tourists then maybe they wouldn’t get any visitors. However we all enjoyed the evening, we knew that these things are rarely truly authentic. Everyone in the room seemed to be enjoying the singing and dancing. That was until they took several people from the audience to join them, my Mum was one of them. There were a lot of red faces in the room after that! I have a lovely photograph of mum rubbing noses, a traditional greeting, with a Maori girl. We all slept extremely well that night after all of the food and talking. Geysers and mud pools aside, there was some good shopping in Rotorua, which is how we spent most of our last day there. I am sure it is even better now than when we visited, but I remember buying quite a lot of clothes on our visit, mainly t-shirts. The clothes were like the grocery’s, much cheaper than we were used to paying in London. After lots of walking and sightseeing we were all worn out, we headed back to our hotel. The three of us spent our last evening sitting outside by the jacuzzi enjoying some drinks. I vaguely remember mum and me had some cocktails, with the usual silly sexual names. Our time in Rotorua came to an end all too quickly, it was soon time to drive back to Upper Hutt.

Oceania