Day 32 - The Auckland Sky Tower

The revolving restaurant at Auckland's Sky Tower is an experience not to be missed. 

At 190 metres from the ground and rotating once an hour you get panoramic views while you dine on exquisite cuisine...

...and you don't even feel it moving!

At ground level there's the gift shop and we had to try these.

Here's Margaret looking a bit sheepish...

...and I had to try on a Kiwi headdress!

We then went to the cinema to see "The Hobbit".

And in the evening our last meal with Carolyn and Amber before an 
early morning for the return flight.

Truly, a holiday of a lifetime!!

Day 31 - Glowworms, Kiwis & Hobbits

The glowworm caves at Waitomo were sensational - the only problem was you were not allowed to take photos or video them. So here is the restaurant area with a nice roof...

...and below is a photo of us outside the glowworm caves.

For more information, click HERE.

Outside the caves there were even more agapanthus.

Then on to the Otorohanga Kiwi House where we actually saw real, live Kiwi - those in the picture above are stuffed but you can imagine them. Kiwi are nocturnal and so the Kiwi House had fooled the birds into thinking it was night time and letting a couple of them out into "moonlit" enclosures where we could see them. At feeding time, the female Kiwi, who was very territorial, would attack her keeper with the food bowl by biting and kicking between mouthfuls of food. Strange behaviour.

However, there were other birds to be photographed.

Then to Hobbiton and a tour of the movie set from the 

Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit.

We walked around the village to see the houses...

...and took lots of photos outside the dwellings...

...then across the bridge...

...to a nice peaceful corner of the Green Dragon Inn.

Unfortunately there was no-one at home on the day we visited!

For more information about Hobbiton, click HERE.

Day 30 - Rotorua to Taupo

At Rotorua, the motel we stayed in was called "Pohutu Lodge"...

...and just out the back of the motel was the Pohutu geyser...

...which erupts around 20 times per day sending steam some 30 metres into the air.

In the morning we explored the lake side...

...and visited a Maori community there...

...complete with it's own picturesque church.

 

As usual there were some very interesting flowers.

We also visited this small river which was flowing with very warm water on the way to...

"Wai-O-Tapu", (Sacred Water), the "Thermal Wonderland", with it's thermal mud pools and lots of geothermal activity. For more information, click HERE. Vast holes in the ground were bubbling and producing lots of steam...

...and whole lakes were steaming!

 

Finally there was Lake Ngakoro Waterfall which was worth the extra walk.

And then to Huka Falls where the Waikato River leaving Lake Taupo is channeled from 100 metres width into 15 metres and falls distances of 8 then 11 metres meaning that 220,000 litres of water per second is flowing.

This is why there are no trout or eels in Lake Taupo - they can't make it up the falls!

At Taupo, our motel is called "Mountain View" and there they are in the distance just across Lake Taupo.

Day 29 - Rotorua and the buried village

 Rotorua is inland from the Bay of Plenty in the north island of NZ and the city is on the edge of Lake, you guessed it, Rotorua. The city is known for it's geothermal activity and features geysers and their smell, but you soon get used to it.

The countryside is very beautiful and on our trip to "The Buried Village" we passed the Green Lake and next to it, the Blue Lake.

  The weather was perfect, not too hot and with light fluffy clouds.

"The Buried Village", one of NZ's greatest natural disasters, was due to the eruption of Mount Tarawera 1886, for details, click HERE.

One of the features of our visit to the village was the waterfall.

  

Around the display for the village were these...

...authentic Maori carvings.

 

The people on duty were wearing costume of the period.

Back to Rotorua and a visit to the Museum, formerly a Bath House where guests would bathe in the various mineral rich waters of the area.

Just outside the museum, a very fine bronze sculpture - I'm just standing there to give it a sense of proportion.

And finally for our evening meal to an award winning fish and chip shop where we bought a takeaway Chinese meal. Delicious!

Day 28 - Mt Eden, Museum, Domain and Cathedral

For panoramic views of Auckland Mount Eden cannot be beaten. It is a volcano which last erupted 15,000 years ago and the top is 196 metres above sea level.

Then to the Auckland War Memorial Museum...

...and a visit to the performance by a group of Maoris,
to see the 20 minute performance, including their Haka,
 click HERE...

...as well as a tour of the exhibition of Maori art...

...including a full size village hut complete with all of the wood carving decoration.

The traditional carvings are all around...

...as is a friendly Maori!

Not forgetting that this is a War Memorial museum there is an actual Spitfire plane which took part in World War II on display.

The museum stands in a large park known as the Domain and in a part of this park are glasshouses for exotic plants...

...such as this hibiscus...

...a wide variety of ferns including the Silver Fern, the national emblem...

...orchids...

...and many other exotic plants...

...and flowers.

Just a short way from the park is the site of the Cathedral. On this site are 2 buildings, one old, the other new. The older one, above, is the Cathedral Church of St Mary which was moved in 1982 in one piece to it's present site from across the road where it was originally built in 1897. It is regarded as one of the finest wooden Gothic buildings in the world.

The first half of the new Holy Trinity Cathedral was dedicated and occupied in 1973 and finally completed in 1995.

It has some very impressive stained glass windows.