Our unscheduled plane ride from Christchurch to the north island landed us in Rotorua. A very nice town right on Lake Rotorua with nice hotels and a very nice hot spring spa nearby. The first thing you notice about Rotorua is that no matter where you are, it smells like sulphur. But, our hotel room seemed to be immune to the smell which was a god send.

We no longer had our RVs so the Wagon Masters arranged for bus tours to the north island interesting venues. We did not get to see Wellington and Waitron or Napier, shown on my map as stops for our RV. But the tour company added several other visits that had not been on our schedule in the Rotorua and Taupo areas that made up for it. Thanks again Wagon Masters.

Our tour bus had a very unique rear engine cover. The air vents were the likes of the Kiwi bird, the bird of New Zealand. You have to stare at it a minute.

We visited a Russian husky raising farm. A couple over 70 years old raised huskies for competition and breeding. The noise from the huskies, as we arrived, was ear shattering for us older folks. I don’t know how the couple put up with it (or the nearby neighbours for that matter!). We got a very nice lecture from the husband about raising the huskies and where and when they raced while the wife went about getting them ready to race for us.

Here are a couple of short videos of the goings on during our tour.

The huskies in their pens getting ready to be hooked up. These huskies have little or no empathy towards humans. They are not mean, however. They cannot make the bond we see in dogs that we share our homes with. The trainers NEVER let a husky out of the cage or off a transfer leash. Once the dog is free, it is GONE.

I don’t see how the neighbours put up with the noise. Whatever. Getting the dogs from the kennel to their sled tow line.

The trainers use a tractor as a sled when there is no snow, which is most of the time, from what I understand. He simply keeps the tow line taught and lets them run.

We were driven to Lake Aratiatia on the Waikato River where we boarded a tour boat at the dam and motored about 2 hours up river to see the Hula Falls. The river come out of a very narrow steep rock walled canyon with Huka falls the result. The tour boat approached the falls and, similar to Niagara Falls, it approached the falls several times giving adequate time for romantic couples to take photos against the falls.

It is said that the canyon and falls were used in the Lord of the Rings movies. But since I never saw those movies, I don’t know.

We next went to Wairakei Thermal Health Spa. We dressed in our bathing gear and entered the multi-temperature thermal pools.

The pools were from 105 F to about 95 F as they travelled away from the thermal site. The photo below is the origin of the thermal water.

We next went to the Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. This is a thermal area with probably hundreds of various thermal vents and formations. These are photos of the most interesting to me.

The first is a typical vent area with bubbling caldera at the bottom.

A panorama of the lake like caldera at the top of the area with jets of material shooting up giving us a perfect photo.

The most spectacular thermal stop, to me since I am red/green challenged, was this GREEN thermal pool.

Ending the thermal tour we were taken to the Lady Knox geyser. The sign at the entrance to the thermal wonderland stated the Lady Knox Geyser would be active at 10 AM every day except the days the thermal wonderland was closed. What? Geysers go off regularly on their own, not our our schedule. But, the reality is that this geyser actually goes off erratically. But historically it was found in the days of the nearby miners that came to bath and wash clothes found that putting soap into the geyser lowers the surface tension and allowed the geyser to do what it does on our schedule. So, an employee came out and made a little speech and proceeded to put soap into the geyser.

And then:

We had a day trip west of Rotorua. First stop was the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. The photo below was the romantic place to take photos. So:

One curiosity in the cave was this pipe sticking out of the ceiling, shadowed above the guy in front of the light. The company that upgraded the caves to meet government safety and eco requirements drilled this pipe to supply the cave construction crews with wiring, food, etc. You look up the pipe 165 feet and you can see light from the other end as a small dot.

The glow worms appeared like this when the lights when lights are off.

If you take a time exposure, the filaments that the worms drop to capture food (who know what they eat) appear like this.

Our next stop was Hobbiton, the site of Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies. We had a couple come on this specific tour just to see Hobbiton. Of course the set has been upgraded and made a major tourist attraction where, they say, about 600,00 people visit a year. Some photos. See if you recognise any of these places.

Note: The tree at the top of the hill is man made from plaster and silk leaves and cost many many thousands of dollars to construct because Lucas wanted a tree there. Notice how much attention the tourists are paying to the guide in this short video.

In Rotorua, we were taken to a farm demonstration area. We had explained to us the various uses put to the sheep in New Zealand. There are 19 types of sheep with products from the finest wools in the world to the best eating and in between. Video show each type of sheep. Some are pretty weird.

We visited a Mitai Maori Village where warrior canoeing was demonstrated.

We witnessed, actually quite a good, performance from local native young performers of native dancing and “singing,” if you could call it that. But, it was very entertaining.

A few of our geriatric group tried the Zorb. So, you get inside this big plastic double walled ball with some water so it is slippery and then they push you down this mountain! They said it was very cool. We said, “ya, right!”