Rotorua

Sunday 11th February 2024

There is so much to do around Rotorua. We decided to start with the Redwood Exoerience. It is a walk around a redwood forest at about 11m, although some of it goes up to 20m. It’s a beautiful walk but very difficult to photograph! The forest was planted in the late 1800s as part of an experiment to find out what trees grew best in New Zealand for plantations. In the end they decided the Monterey pine was best and about 95% of the countries plantations are now Monterey pine.

We then moved onto the Māori village for a tour. I was a bit sceptical about this but it was really good. They have three craft schools there, stone/bone carving, wood carving and weaving. They take in a few students every year and teach them the old Maori crafts. 50% of the tickets price goes to fund the schools. They also have a Kiwi sanctuary here which we weren’t expecting, no photos allowed as the kiwis enclosure has day/night flipped around so that we can see them during the day. They are nocturnal, it was great to see them and they are much bigger than you would expect! The Māori village is in a geothermal area so there were more mud baths and hot water and also this amazing geyser which kindly went off when we were there!

Back to the Airbnb for a great BBQ. A lively cat came to see us and we discovered he lives under the house. But someone must be feeding him as he looked very healthy! Then to top it all off we saw a couple of Monarch butterflies!! Apparently there are some that stay in New Zealand and don’t migrate. It was wonderful to see them.