after all the bubbling mud of our previous day we decided to do something more cultural and went to te puia – a local maori cultural place.
it was also another thermal place so we got to see more geysers and bubbling mud. and it rained. a lot. and was chilly
however we also saw a maori cultural presentation which was jolly good. the girls went to sit at the front and ended up on stage learning to dance with spinning pom poms for a particular song. there’s a few more pictures in the slide show below
we went on a little guided tour of the park with a guide who it turned out was talking a load of nonsense ! many of the things she said were contradicted by other tours we heard going round during the day, and very little of what any of them said fitted with what was on the information signs !
at one point we got to sit on this shelf which is a ‘hot seat’ due to the thermal activity underneath naturally warming the concrete steps. i sat on it and must have chosen a very hot bit as i felt rather warm around the rump. i feared i’d been burnt, but i turned the other cheek and all was fine in the end.
the geysers at this park were more regular but sadly more steamy (on the rainy day we were there) so you couldn’t really make them out when they blew
the girls are getting more kiwi by the day so it was only natural they’d wander round in bare feet. (compare this to the signs all over the place the day before saying jandals weren’t allowed)
the advantage for us of this foot arrangement was we got a running commentary on whether the footpath was hot or cold as we walked around the various thermal locations. it was amazing how much of the pathway was really hot and we were missing out because we had our shoes on !
here’s a steaming forest and we also saw a couple of live kiwis, one of which was running about really fast. here’s a photo of a stuffed one:
as usual, here’s the tourist photos:
and the obligatory google map
and as a special bonus, here’s a photo you can use as your desktop wallpaper on your pooter. just click on it to get the big version, then right click on the picture and choose ‘set as desktop picture’ or something
