Visited Te Puia today. We just wanted to see a geyser and some boiling mud, but the have a lot more there than that. We hadn't realised it but it was an important Maori cultural centre, hosting a wood carving school and a weaving school. They also had a full-on Maori show with traditional greetings and dances which we decided to skip (thought the kids wouldn't be interested).
Our guide was a bit "too Maori", speaking like native speak to white man who travel many moon to visit. Maybe he really spoke like that, or maybe he assumed that, being from Spain, we would understand him better that way. He also banged his chest every time he uttered the word Maori. Still, he took us around and showed us the sights and explained everything just fine. We saw the greeting ceremony they were doing to the people who has paid for the cultural show and the kids were most impressed. Whoops, methinks they would have enjoyed it, too late we remembered how much Aisha likes dances (she loved the ones in Southeast Asia) and Lucas' bellic little heart was a'flutter with all the spears and face tattoos.
Checked out the wood and weaving workshops briefly and then we were on our way to see some kiwi birds when our guide noticed the geyser at it's best and took us there instead. Quite an impressive display. The mud pools were also received with enthusiasm by the kids as we told them it looked like farting mud. On our way out we popped in to see the kiwis, though not much luck: only saw one and he was half hidden away.
Our Rotorua campsite also has hot pools. These are hotter and smaller than at Taupo, more what you expect from a thermal pool. Had a nice soak in them this evening.
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