February 19 - Living in the Geo Thermal World

Last night we cruised south from the Bay of Islands, passed Auckland and arrived in Tauranga.  Tauranga is a harbourside city in the Bay of Plenty region on New Zealand's North Island.  A bridge over the harbour connects Tauranga to Mount Maunganui, a beach town with hot saltwater pools and an extinct volcano with winding walking paths. 

Tauranga unfortunately has been in the news recently.  This was the port where the tourists left from to go to White Island, where they died when the volcano erupted on the island.  Our tour guide was a coworker with two of the people that perished. Because of New Zealand law they company can not be sued, but it expects to receive heavy fines for not providing a safe work environment and endangering its workers.

Tauranga lies on a geothermal field and active earthquake zone.  The nick name for this area is the Shaky Isles.

Our excursion today will concentrate on the geysers, hot pools and mud baths that are in abundance in this area.  We started off going to Wai-o-Tapu.  Wai-o-Tapu has a geyser that erupts each day at around 10am.  Although not as big as Old Faithful, it still is impressive.  I had my camera on recording the event, but when it was over, I realized that somehow I had not pressed the record button. Darn!  

A short distance from the geyser there are multiple hot pools, caverns and mud baths.  The steam and sulphur smell from these pools can be overwhelming at times.  There is one pool, known as Roto Kariikitea that is a bright yellow colour and extremely acidic.

Next, we went of a Māori village. Whakarewarewa is an inhabited Māori village where they present their culture.  Our guide was a very informative resident of the village, whose family could trace their linage back to multiple generations that lived in the same village.   The tour started by discussing the Marae house, which is a communal meeting centre, used for weddings, funerals and village business. 

She then attempted to have us pronounce the name of her village.  Unfortunately, there were two American jackasses, who thought they were being funny by cracking stupid jokes as she told us how to pronounce each syllable.  You could tell she was insulted because she took great pride in her heritage.  Later during the tour, she did get back at them.  While discussing the benefits of hot mineral baths, one the idiots asked her if it would fix his friends face, to which she replied, yes it would fix both of your faces to which she got a round of applause.  We didn’t hear anything more from these jerks after that.

The Māori language is very complicated.  For example the official name of the village is "Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao".  Now that is a mouth full.

She told us that all the cooking is done over the thermal vents. The temperature stays a constant 250 degrees Celsius.  She stated that heat and steam ensure that meat is cooked perfectly each time.  They cook their vegetables in the hot pools with similar results.  They have been using this method for hundreds of years.

Then we saw a Māori cultural performance.  It consisted of dancing to and singing tribal songs. 

It ended with a Haka.  This is the dance the warriors would perform to scare their opponents and has now become famous as the All Blacks perform a Haka before each rugby match.

Finding out about the Māori culture was one of my primary reasons for going to New Zealand.  It is always nice to find out about people's culture.  Although I didn't learn a lot about their beliefs, I can tell they are a proud and spiritual people.

On the way back to the ship, we stopped at a Kiwi farm.  New Zealander’s are known as Kiwis but it comes from the association to the Kiwi bird not the fruit.

Tonight, was our first formal dinning night. Celebrity now calls this Smart Chic instead of formal.  This means suit jacket and tie are no longer required, although most men still wore a suit.  Marg had duck and I had lamb for diner.  Both meals were excellent. I happy to report that wine steward problem has been fixed, but the selection is still pathetic. With Marg having a gluten intolerance we thought there might be problems finding good meals for her onboard. That has not been a problem, in fact she can ask for anything on the menu in advance and they will prepare ii without any gluten contamination.