'Taking the Cure' at Rotorua and home

The Tamaki Maori Village is the best place to experience pre European Maori culture.  It is set  in the forest about 20 mins outside Rotorua.  Once we were beyond the entrance gates of the village we were led through a roving theatrical experience.  As we walked from hut to hut we were taught the Haka, how to play Maori games, weave, and the poi dance all set under the night sky and the canopy of the forest . 

Learning the Poi

Weaving flax

Rotorua is a vibrant city on the lake just a little sulphuric - not too over powering. Highly recommend a visit to the Te Arawa exhibition at the Rotorua Museum -  housed in the very grand Tudor styled old bath house.  The exhibition is new and details the Maori's arrival and settlement of New Zealand, the culture and taonga (treasures) of the people, and then the impact of European settlement.  The kids did exploring info sheets which kept them busy and engaged.  The cinematic experience was great and unexpected - the movie re anacted the explosion of Mt Tarawera, including shaking seats!




You can explore the old bath house building from the top of the roof to the basement.  It was built in 1908 funded by the New Zealand Government to encourage tourism to 'take the cure' at the 'Great South Seas Spa'.  It looked like torture to me, any thing called a 'sanatarium' at that time wasn't a relaxing retreat even though it was very fashionable to go.  Treatments included soaking in volcanic mud then being hosed down, electric shock treatment, and soaking in  volcanic water pumped into the bowels of the building.

Our last stop over was in Auckland, first impressions not so good just a huge city really hard to get into with peak hour traffic.  The next day we had a nice explore of Parnell a arty cafe strip on the out skirts of the city and we had the best play at an out doors adventure park on the harbour, again out of the city - crazy flying fox!


We had driven from the south at Wellington to the north at Auckland and had a great week, kids definitely want to go back inspired by our geothermal adventures.