Day 19 - Saturday March 2, 2024 - Rotorua and the North island of New Zealand

By Ellen Outten

 

Pronounced Row Tow Rua, just as it's spelled 

As promised, we were up at 4 am to pack the bits and pieces we hadn't yet done and on the bus at 5:15 to the Queenstown airport.  Air New Zealand was on time, both flights as we connected in Christchurch.  This is a first for on time flights in country this trip.  We arrived in Rotorua at 11 am and once we get to the hotel, we are on our own for the rest of the day.  I know it will be early to bed tonight.

Small airports are everywhere.  In the US, we think about small airports and have a vision in our heads.   But you don't have any concept of a small airport until you fly a two propeller plane into Rototua and make a U-Turn on the runway after landing.  One flight a day.  As they say here, no worries mate, there's no running into another plane landing.  The entrance to the arrivals terminal is 10 steps from baggage carousel (singular).  


40% of the city is Maori.  This city has the largest population of Maori tribe in all of New Zealand.  

If you've read my previous posts, you know I take pictures of things, out of ordinary, that strike my funny bone.  This sign was on the inside of the unisex bathroom I used while waiting for our luggage. A serious subject, yes, but....it is an attention grabber.

What the heck!!!!

On the way into town, we visited a redwood forest.  Same types of trees as the US redwood forest.  


The statutes are made of redwood trees






We arrived at our hotel around noon and rooms were ready!   Wayne sat down to upload his pictures and I went for a walk with a specific store in mind.  

Just walking around Rotorua

Australia is known for their opals, however, New Zealand is known for its jade, also known as Nephrite jade or “greenstone” or “pounamu” and it plays a very important role in Maori culture. It is considered as a “Taonga” (or treasure).

I had a chance to look at some on the south island but didn't get excited about what i saw. Today in town, there was a store that specialized in jade.

As is the case, there's jade that is mined or gathered in New Zealand, designed and carved in New Zealand and sold in New Zealand. While there are other jades that come out of Canada, China, Russia.  This store clearly sold all types of jade and let you know when you had genuine NZ.  I only wanted a real NZ piece.  Wayne is not a shopper so I happily went off by myself and found something I liked.

When I returned to the hotel, we walked out for supper....supper/lunch.  I only need one meal a day any more.  We went to a typical bar here in Rotorua called the Pig and Whistle, a converted police station.   We had a good early dinner before returning to the hotel.

Enough for today.  We've been up since 4 am, it's time to kick back after my 8,000+ step day.

It's on the bus at 8:45 tomorrow morning to see the National Kiwi Recovery Trust to learn about the national bird.  And then we go on to the Paradise Springs Wildlife Park.  We finish tomorrow night by going to The Puia and the Maori cultural center including dinner.





Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 2, 2024 at 5:54 AM

    The blue strawberry 😂🤣;
    Nice artwork; love 💕 the trees.

    ReplyDelete

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