Te Puia

 Rotorua is famous for it's geothermal activity, and so today we headed over to Te Puia and the Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve.  We didn't realize until we got there how incredible the place would be.

As it turns out Te Puia is home to not only the largest geyser in the Southern Hemisphere - named Pōhutu (meaning "constant splashing" in Maori) - but also to the New Zealand Maori Arts & Crafts Institute.  Thankfully we signed up for a tour with one of the parks Maori guides - had we not, I'm sure we would have simply checked out the geyser and left.  Included in the tour, we went into the Arts & Crafts Institute, where craftsmen and women are given two year scholarships to attend, and they are paid while at the school learning their chosen traditional craft such as weaving, wood carving, or rock/bone carving.  The institute was very advanced, and reminded me a bit of Maui Arts and Cultural Center if they turned the buildings (minus the theaters) into classes and workshops on learning and mastering traditional Hawaiian arts and crafts.  The students and teachers do commissioned pieces, as well as pieces for display and for sale - all to help fund the Institute.  But the primary funding source is the admission fees paid by visitors to see the geothermal park - that revenue goes to pay for more students to learn these Maori skills . . . it was really amazing to see.  There is simply nothing like it that I can think of in the US.

After being captivated by the carvers and weavers, and learning a bit about their program and process of learning - we moved on to the Kiwi Conservation Centre.

Te Puia has three young kiwi in a special habitat, and Sharyl and Reef were able to walk through to get a first hand look at the iconic birds!  Because Kiwi are nocturnal, they keep the enclosed area very dark during the day and turn lights on at night so the birds are active in the day and can be seen and monitored more easily and they sleep at night.  River and I stayed out of the dark kiwi area and met Sharyl and Reef on the other end of the building where the birds are housed.  This was the highlight of the day for Reef, he could barely contain his excitement having seen three North Island Brown Kiwi (there are five species of kiwi in total).  Sharyl said she felt like her trip to New Zealand was finally complete having seen these cute, fuzzy little flightless birds. 

Following all the Kiwi excitement, we headed to the Geothermal area, where the first thing we saw was a bubbling mud pool that is apparently 203 degrees Fahrenheit and over 30 feet deep!  

From there it was on to main geyser - Pōhutu, which goes off 2 times per hour and can shoot up water 100 feet into the air.  We approached the geyser area from downwind and were clouded in steam.  We made our way through the waves of steam, until we eventually got up wind and were able to better see the geyser and the surrounding area.  Reef and I grabbed a seat on some stone terraces which were heated by the geothermal activity, in the 50 odd degree weather it was pretty nice to have a heated seat!

On up and around we went looking at hot pools, mud pools, and catching different views of Pōhutu as we went.  After 30 - 45 min of checking the area out we went into the gift shop and got a couple things -the woman at the counter really liked River, and gave him a free little stuffed Kiwi which he loves!

We were starving, so went off and found - of all things - a good Mexican restaurant.  After getting our fill, we wandered down the block looking for Ice Cream (Reef's mission continues), and in the process spotted what is, up to this point the most impressive playground we've yet seen in New Zealand, and that is saying something.

After polishing off his Orange and Chocolate Chip ice cream cone, Reef was climbing skyward up netting and onto a swinging bridge before sliding down a 20 foot tall tube slide.  He kept it up hitting the Zipline, and a bunch of other playground equipment.  

Meanwhile I walked over to the edge of lake Rotorua, which was all of 50 yards from the playground.

After quite a while of burning off Reef's energy we called it a day as the sun went down, and headed back to our AirBnb.  Where River proceeded to have a ball dancing on the coffee table until we finally pulled him off the stage and put him to bed.