Bellmen magically made our bags disappear and we checked out of the hotel. The morning started with breakfast at Eight, where I had a box of the most boring cereal I’ve ever tasted. Imagine a cereal like Rice Crispies, but with no taste and no snap crackle pop. I tried again for some delicious spelt toast with apricot preserves.
We loaded onto the bus and drove about an hour to Huntly, a small town/rest stop outside of Auckland. New Zealand is apparently famous for Possum Marino. The gift shop at the rest stop supposedly specialized in these wool sweaters. But wool is itchy, possum or otherwise, and these were expensive! Every sweater was between $150 and $300 New Zealand dollars. I petted several possum pelts, but I didn’t buy anything, because I prefer my possums still breathing and preferably making pleasing sounds.
Although I guess if you ask New Zealanders the possums are a real pest. They’re not native to New Zealand and they’re quite destructive to the native animal life, which is primarily avian. I hear that on the south island there are hunting contests where you can win prizes based on the number of possum tails you bring in.
Many of the ladies on our tour who didn’t have adequate winter clothing took the opportunity to buy new sweaters. Predictably however, as soon as they bought the sweaters it warmed up into a really nice day and it was too warm for them to wear any of their purchases.
Our next stop was in Hobbiton (the towns real name is Mata Mata), where Peter Jackson filmed the opening scenes of Lord of the Rings. Part of his agreement with New Zealand (and the farmer whose land he was on) said that he had to remove all traces of Hobbiton when filming was done. Big mistake. Tourism would have been huge after the film came out!
They’re currently in the process of rebuilding Hobbiton for the Hobbit movie, and this time the word is the farmer is going to leave it up. Ca-ching!
There is a nice little sign welcoming you to Hobbiton with a statue of Gollum. One side of the statue says Gollum the other says Smeagol. I convinced Dad to take a couple of good gag pictures of me with the statue...
After that we continued on to Longlands Farm, a thriving dairy farm and restaurant. Kerry Simpson was the owner, and seemed to be a long time friend of Renee. His little grandson was visiting because his mom (Kerry’s daughter) was off skiing on the south island.
Kerry took us out to one of the milking sheds, and gave us an overview of how his farm works. It’s amazing! He has 240 cows and one guy can go to the pasture, get the cows, milk them, and get them into another pasture in only an hour and a half! And it only takes two people to run the entire farm!
The grazing land in this part of New Zealand is the best in the world. They get 60 inches of rain a year so the grass grows like a weed, often faster than the cows can eat it. The cows produce milk about 10 months a year, the peak occurring after they calve in August/September, tapering off into the early winter months when they get to rest.
The cows eat practically nothing besides the grass. Kerry feeds them 3kg each of supplemental grain per day, but that’s really more a way to get vitamins into them than anything else. For example, after calving, they need extra magnesium, so he puts that in the feed they eat while they’re being milked.
The way they can get enough grass is by clever distribution of when and where the cows are allowed to eat it. The land is divided up into 40 pastures. In the morning the cows are milked and put in one pasture. In the evening they are milked again, but they are returned to the next pasture in the line. As a result the pasture they came from won’t be grazed in again for 20 days, so it has a chance to grow a fresh meal for them.
New Zealand dairy farms operate on a cooperative system. Kerry is part of the largest cooperative in New Zealand, Fontera, which also happens to be the largest corporation in New Zealand. It only takes 10% of the locally produced dairy to make enough milk, cheese, and dairy products to feed New Zealand’s small population of about 4.5 million people. The rest is exported.
New Zealand’s main industries in order of importance are dairy exports, tourism, and logging. Not exactly what I would have guessed.
After our milking talk, Kerry took us back to the restaurant, which was absolutely charming. An enormous homey fireplace had a nice blaze going, sky-lights let in the sunshine, and the decorations were charmingly rustic and country. The crockery fit right in.
And the food! The food was amazing! I would say it was one of the most enjoyable meals we’ve had on the trip so far. All the ingredients were so fresh and honest. Things were simple but absolutely delicious.
There was a buffet, with bread and butter, salad, the best au gratin potatoes I’ve ever had, freshly steamed vegetables, and lamb. The lamb was the event on the plate (even better than the potatoes). The end cut had savory herbs all over it and was some of the best lamb I’ve ever had.
I cleaned my plate. I resisted licking it, but only just.
Dessert was wonderful as well, although I got distracted on my way. I made a new friend (see below). I never found out what his name was, but he was sure sweet and friendly!
We had a nice long petting session while he lolled in the sun. Eventually, I got my dessert, which was the best vanilla ice cream Dad or I had ever eaten.
The meal was charming and absolutely wonderful. Definitely a great find by Tauck!
Our afternoon was just as busy as our morning. We drove toward Whakarewarewa (in Maori the ‘wh’ is pronounced like an ‘f’ so Renee took great delight in getting to say ‘fuck-arewarewa’ into the microphone). We had to pass through a town called Tirau, which is famous for their corrugated iron signage/decorations. (The dog/building in the picture below is made entirely of corrugated iron).
In the afternoon we visited Te Puia, which is in Rotorua, and is full of natural hot springs, geysers, boiling mud pools, and other geothermal attractions. In addition to the natural features of the reserve there is also a Maori tribal village set up, complete with the required cultural presentation.
The cultural presentation was actually kind of cool. A Maori woman came out and talked us through the welcoming ceremony. One of our men folk had to volunteer to be chief and accept the peace offering of a leaf. Frank volunteered. He also had to press noses with her, which he thought was okay. But the look on his face when she told him he also had to do it with the other Maori men was priceless!
After the welcoming ceremony we were invited inside the sacred house, which is always named after an important Maori chief of the past. The front of the building is constructed to represent the chiefs body, with head, open arms, heart, and ribs. When you enter the sacred house you enter the body of the chief. Inside there is no footwear permitted, no food is eaten, and nothing is smoked. It is used for entertainment (like for us), weddings, and funerals.
There were at least seven people who demonstrated Maori dances, games, and songs for us. Their show was quite good. However, one of the Maori men was much better looking than all of the others... two guesses which one he was (although this picture does not showcase his amazing thighs to their full advantage...)
There is a pair of kiwi birds in a sanctuary at Te Puia. Their names are ‘Ki’ and ‘Wi.’ Original. Kiwi birds are endangered, due to introduced four legged predators. They are flightless and very cute looking. This is not a species where it is good to be female however. Kiwi bird eggs are the largest eggs in proportion to the body of the bird laying it. The eggs are the size of ostrich eggs but the kiwi birds are about the size of a rugby ball (an oversized football). Ouch!
After the kiwi bird sanctuary we saw the largest pool of boiling mud. It makes a very pleasing plopping sound as it bubbles. The more you watch it the more hypnotic it gets. The mud is supposed to be good for your skin (when it’s not boiling anyway). Our guide(who was about 40) pointed to his face and told us he was living proof, joking that he was actually 85.
The biggest geyser (nicknamed Old Unfaithful) erupted while we were there. It goes off about once an hour but it isn’t very predictable. There was a lot of steam involved. Since I’d never seen a geyser before I thought it was pretty cool. It doesn’t go as high as Old Faithful but it lasts a lot longer, sometimes up to 10 minutes.
The last stop on our tour was in the weaving school. Our guide very skillfully demonstrated how the Maori worked with flax to produce the clothing and baskets they used (keep in mind there were no big game animals to use for fur). Below is a video of him demonstrating the technique. He makes it look so easy!
After a mandatory visit to the Te Puia gift shop we took a group photo in front of a Victorian-style bath house just down the road. It was pretty sunny out, so we’ll see how many of us have our eyes open in the final result!
Our hotel is not actually in Rotorua (which smells like sulfur from the hot springs), but in Rotoiti. Rotoiti was discovered first and means ‘small lake.’ Rotorua was discovered next, and its name is quite original... it means ‘second lake.’ So creative...
The view from our room is spectacular.
Dinner was in the hotel tonight (which also had a nice fire place). I had some delicious pumpkin soup and a tasty fillet. Dad had an excellent salmon mouse-thingy and monk fish.
After an early morning, we were both pretty tired by the time we’d finished our coffee and tea.
Tomorrow dawns even earlier (but maybe not brighter, we’ve been driving south). We’ll fly to Milford Sound and Wellington, where I’ll get to see Laura Shultz!
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