Lush and Beautiful New Zealand

New Zealand is completely different than Australia. The people, the culture and the landscape couldn’t be any more different. To our surprise, the native people from New Zealand called the “Maori” people are much like Polynesian/Hawaiian. Their language, appearance and culture are very similar.

Day One:

We spent the first day and a half in Auckland on the North Island (which is about 680 miles long). It’s called the “City of Sails” as it has the conditions for the best sailing in the world. It’s where the America’s Cup was held a few years ago.

We started out the day with a visit to an Aquarium. They had a great exhibit with adorable Penguins. Some even had newborns still under the parent to keep them warm. They also had many sharks, sting rays and a variety of fish that were interesting to see.

 

We then ventured to the Auckland Museum that began with a native Maori demonstration where several Maori men and women performed their native dances and songs dressed in their traditional clothing. It reminded us of the Hawaiian people. They were very passionate (as most Maori people we’ve met – they have a very aggressive nature which stays with them today) about their ancestors and their history. The Museum was full of the history of New Zealand, the agriculture, the animals (past and present), their volcanos and a section that covered their military history.

 

As usual with our timing, the weather didn’t cooperate as we’d like as there were many clouds and a bit of rain throughout the day. It still didn’t stop us from exploring the city for the later part of the day and see the harbor and quaint city streets full of restaurants and shops.

Day two:

The next day we headed to the city of Matamata and drove the country side. This is where Lord of the Rings was filmed. There’s also a new movie about to be filmed called “the Hobbit”. The scenery was mountainous with rolling hills with pastures upon pastures full of cows (dairy farming is the prevalent industry here). We stopped at a cute New Zealand shop full of beautiful wool sweaters, scarfs, mittens, etc. They also had the most wonderful ice cream (“Tip Tops”) that we couldn’t pass up even though it was 10:30 in the morning.

We stopped at a working farm called Longland’s that was absolutely awesome. Not only did they raise their cows (240 of them) they also had a magnificent area where they catered to visitors.

They put on a marvelous lunch full of fresh local foods. The food was delicious (the lamb was a little hard to swallow, but at least we tasted it – it was mostly a vegetarian lunch); the atmosphere was warm and welcoming with a dining room full of country touches along with impeccable service. Their grounds were full of roses, flowers, herbs and many quaint arbors with benches to relax and enjoy the grounds.

From there we went to a Sheep Show that had 19 varieties of sheep from around the world that actually “performed”, it was really cute.

They also had a demonstration of a sheep getting sheered. We sort of felt bad for the poor little guy, but it was done tastefully. They also had demonstrations of the sheep dogs and how they work the farm. They are pretty smart.

Joan volunteered on stage (not knowing what she was going to do) and ended up feeding milk to cute little lambs. Adorable!!

We continued our journey to Rotorua (a geo-thermal area) and stopped the Maori Cultural Arts Center. We were given a guided tour from a Maori gentleman that explained details about the Rotorua area that includes natural hot springs.

There was a geyser with two spouts that happened to be active when we walked by – shooting about 40 feet in the air. There were also large boiling mud pools that spit mud into the air. It was really cool.