Come on lettie

[lettie]

Before leaving the Rotorua area, I decided to have a gander round the New Zealand Maori Arts and crafts Institute. Here, they teach young Maori traditional skills like wood carving, there is a song and dance show put on for the visitors and the women show you how they make their traditional dress using flax, which grows just about everywhere in this area, despite the sulphorous conditions. Here are some photos, there's one of the carving workshop, female Maori dancers with the little white poi balls made of flax fibres and stuffed with reeds. These things are swung around quite skillfully during the dancing. It's a good job they know what they're doing because they'd have your eye out if they hit you with one. Male dancers performing a traditional 'haka' and one of the intricately carved wooden canoe type boats.

I'm hoping to re-visit this area, as there's so much I didn't get to see. I was only in the Rotorua district for 2 days and tried to see as much as possible, but time was limited.

[Tealeaf]

Re: the piccy, second from left - above:-

WHICH ONE'S YOU?

[lettie]

I'm the one taking the piccy... I know I'm not a brilliant photo taker, and most of these piccies are totally boring (which I warned everyone of in an earlier post), but I remember exacly where I was when I took them, and most of the details to explain them. I did write a lot of stuff down on postcards/receipts etc. in the evenings before going to bed. I reckoned that if I'd gone all that way it would be worth remembering, and I knew my step-mum would want every detail cos she loves NZ and lived there for a few years when she was younger.

[Sparkologist]

Did you add Mount Cook to you tick list whilst in New Zealand, Lettie?

[lettie]

Was desperate to do South Island, everybody there says it's the most scenic of the 2 islands (and North Island is gorgeous) didn't have time to do South, but am aiming to go back in march next year, provided I can get 2 weeks off in April as well. Hoping to have some time on South Island then. Would love to see Mt Cook area and Arthurs Pass. There's a driving tour you can do in that area, stopping over at villages and then out walking/climbing for the day before moving on. Due to the gradient on some of the roads and the altitude, some of the roads close after snowfall, and many are unsealed anyway. The weather is very unpredictable here. While I was there in December, Dunedin, on South Island had a blizzard in the morning, followed by a heavy rain shower then the sun came out at about 3pm and it was about 70 F. The weather forecasters were laughing their heads off on the news that night, as none of them had predicted that!

[mick]

where is the pic of the fridge door you took lettie ? hehe

[lettie]

hehehehe, my 6 year old nephew took that one, he was messing with the camera. Meant to remove all those odd ones before I brought the photos to your house Mick, but typically, I was in a hurry and forgot.

[Sparkologist]

A simple 'yes' or 'no' would have sufficed. I'm as jealous as... It sounds worth doing...go for it!

[lettie]

On leaving Rotorua, I headed north. An old school friend had contacted me while I was in Auckland, and invited me to stay with her for a night, so off I went to the Coromandel Penninsula. This place has very rugged coastline, it's great for fishing. Tramping through Coromandel forest park and it's multitudinous trails is a very popular pastime here. Coromandel was once famous in the mid 1800's for its gold mines. Some lucky beggar struck gold and the small town of Thames became a boomtown. The mines were soon emptied and closed, and mining moved further south. Thames is the principal town in the Coromandel area and is where my friend lives. About an hours drive up the coastline from Thames (and a very steep, bendy, nauseating drive at that) lies the pretty town of Coromandel, obviously taking its name from the penninsula. Abot 5 miles or so from Coromandel town, along an unsurfaced and sometimes bumpy road, I found the brilliantly innovative Waiau Waterworks. The guy who made this was originally an engineer and his wife an artist. Together they made this fun little park in which all the features have moveable parts and are all powered by water. I was there alone, and it didn't stop me from having a go on all the little bikes, various jets and fountains. You can play on everything here, and there's a full explanation of how things work. Got all the brochures for my step brother to take my nephew, as he'd love it. On the pics, there are a couple of views of Coromandel coastline overlooking the Firth of Thames, Thames main street (this was taken friday morning 9am rush hour, dead innit??) Coromandel Town visitor centre and courthouse, the same building funnily enough, town picnic area, and some of the water features of Waiau Waterworks.

[ShortStuff]

Keep em coming Lettie - enjoying the views and the geography lessons! Almost feel like I was there myself!