This was our final driving leg and at the end of this post I’ll tell you how far we drove in total.
We left the Hilton Lake Taupo in the morning after breakfast. This was a terrific property and if you’re ever here don’t hesitate to book it. We booked a one bedroom apartment and it was perfect. Aside from a separate bedroom it had a full living, full kitchen, full terrace overlooking the lake including patio dining furniture, and a full washer and dryer which came in mighty handy! All for a net price of about $170/night as the room price of $270 included a $60 food and beverage credit along with included breakfast which we valued at about $40. Excellent value.
We had a relatively short agenda today which was to see the geysers and geothermal pools around Rotorua along with maybe a Maori cultural opportunity that wasn’t too much like the Hawaiian Village pig roast and luau you get in Hawaii. We found it at a living Maori village called Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao or Whakarewarewa for short.
It just so happened that there was a funeral (or tangi in Maori) this morning for one of the village residents.
The village sits among geothermal pools that the Maori use in their daily lives. They NEVER run out of hot water!
The grounds around the village are quite nice and include a geyser.
And this is a view of the hot lake they have next to the village.
We got to walk over the little bridge and get close to the lake.
Once we saw the pools and geysers it was time to walk back into the village. This was a church although the funeral took place in the traditional Maori meeting place and not here.
Here’s the side (or maybe back) of one of the houses in the village.
At 2:00pm we took our seats for a 30 minute Maori cultural show that was a little Hawaiian Village but because it was so short it actually turned out to be just fine. A group performed traditional Maori songs and used traditional Maori implements in their performance like these swinging and flying balls that are supposed to recall one of the sacred birds in Maori culture.
Here’s a short slow-motion video of the activity so you can see just how skilled they were with getting them to fly over their heads without putting out anyone’s eye.
After the show we got back into the car and finished up our driving tour three hours later in Auckland at the Sofitel Viaduct Harbor which is right on the waterfront in Auckland. Here’s part of our lovely room.
We also have a balcony that looks out over part of the harbor. These look like great apartments!
Our final driving tally for the trip was 1,648 kilometers on the South Island and another 806 kilometers on the North Island for a total of 2,454 kilometers or 1,472 miles or the distance from our house to Gallup, New Mexico.
And it was all on the left side of the road!
