New Zealand Adventures: Sheep, Steam and Seacoast

Friday, February 3, 2012

Huka Falls leaving Lake Taupo

bid farewell to Turangi this morning, heading north along the eastern shore of Lake Taupo. It is one long lake! Our big regret was that it was so clouded over we couldn't see the mountains on the western side of the lake. We know they are there, because we were standing on them just a couple days ago. The lake is huge! Click on the link if you want details, but it took us about 45 minutes to drive from the south end of the lake to the north, where the city of Taupo is situated.

At Taupo we took a side trip to see Huka Falls. Wow! This is the one outlet for Lake Taupo (at least that I know of) and it forms the Waikato River, which flows north to its terminus in the Tasman Sea south of Auckland. The river has carved and is still carving a canyon through volcanic rock. We were told that at some time of the year they allow kayakers to go down the canyon and over the falls at the bottom. That must be a sight and an experience. We saw some jet and excursion boats come upriver to the falls, take in a little spray and then turn around. As usual, Sandra took some great photos.

Huka Falls

From Taupo we continued on the "thermal highway" to Rotorua, which is probably the thermal capital of New Zealand (my own description). It is also a fairly large city which can be judged by the number of American fast food places in town. We saw Subway, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC, Domino's, and Pizza Hut. There were probably more.

There are lots of things to see and do in the area and most are related to thermal activity. Steam is venting out of the ground in countless places and there are hot pools, boiling mud and other attractions. Most require the purchase of tickets and offer some kind of guided tour. We didn't want to spend the time so we picked up some postcards and moved on to the Agrodome, a somewhat uniquely New Zealand experience. The complex has expanded across the road to include a buggy jump, a big maze, a high swing and some other thrills, but we were there to see the Sheep Show. You can get something of a feel by clicking on the link, but being there in person was pretty cool.

Jet boat meets the falls

There are millions of sheep in this country as everyone knows, but I didn't know there were so many breeds. They were all on display. Even Romney was represented, right next to Merino. The animals were used to being in the show as was obvious from some of their stunts. The host brought out another volunteer sheep and sheared him on stage and then handed out the wool to the audience. He brought a cow out and volunteers from the audience came up to milk her. He summoned well-trained dogs who came up and jump up and over and on the backs of all the sheep, who stood there with bored expressions on their faces.

The show ended after an hour with audience members coming up on stage to take photos of the sheep with family members. Once again, the sheep just stood there posing. Being there gave us the full effect - sight, sound, smell and feel. We were impressed with the mix of people in attendance. Lots of Koreans, many Europeans, a few from Australia, a handful of Americans, some from India, and I think one person bravely said she was from New Zealand.

Excursion boat

We spent another hour in the gift store where New Zealand woolen products were on sale. We spent a few more dollars and we're hoping our family members will be appreciative. (Some of them requested swords and Lord of the Rings stuff - they might be disappointed with a pair of woolen socks. Sorry!)

We hit to road heading east to the eastern shore of New Zealand and the town of Whakatane. A word about Maori words and their pronunciation. It seems that most place names on the North Island have a Maori origin. Many begin with W and end with a vowel. We've learned that many are tongue twisters and that some letter combinations are pronounced unexpectedly for us Americans. So in New Zealand, WH is pronounced with a soft F sound (whatever soft means). All vowels are pronounced as in Hawaii. So this town is pronounced something like this, Fah-kah-tah-nay. Be careful how you say it.

Anyway, we are hoping to participate in a most unusual experience tomorrow and that will be the subject of another post. Stay tuned.