Rotorua and Napier

From Hanmer Springs, Kyle and I travelled to Picton and camped there. The next day was a long day of travel starting with the ferry  back to the North Island. Once in Wellington, we (meaning Kyle) did some trouble-shooting on Snow White's little mis-firing issue.  After a couple of hours, new distributor cap and rotor, new spark plugs and new leads - we were good to go with Snow White was running like a dream! Off for a 6 hour drive to Rotorua...

As an earlier post alluded to, we met up with Tyler and Natalie in Rotorua! In Rotorua, we went for a nice walk along a river pathway in the morning.  Here are a few photos of our walk.

In the afternoon, the four of us visited Te Puia - a Maori cultural centre and thermal grounds.  We attended the cultural performance which includes a ceremonial welcome (Powhirl), Hongi (pressing of noses between people as a symbol of friendship), a cultural performance (kapa haka) that includes stick games (throwing and tapping of sticks in time with music), and poi (balls on strings that are swung around in really cool patterns in time with music). Of course, the performance included the infamous Haka as well.  Tyler and Kyle were up on stage learning the Haka.

After the cultural performance, we walked around the thermal grounds that are full of bubbling mud, steaming rocks and ground and erupting geysers. It was a smelly walk!!

The next day we made a visit to the Agrodome for a show about sheep.  It was great fun.  Tyler milked a cow, Kyle was part of a demonstration and Nat and I fed some little lambs. 

Next stop was Napier where it was raining like crazy!  We did a walking tour and visited the aquarium.