We woke to lovely sunshine today and the man called to say the flight would go ahead so after a quick walk with Totty we were off to Tauranga airport.
I really did not fancy the helicopter flight and so I took the photos. It looked really small when they were sitting inside it waiting for the engine to rev up or whatever helicopters do to warm up. They took off and were given the chance to extend the flight while they were flying so they did and had a lovely time. The highlight for Heather was seeing dolphins quite near to the beach at the Mount.
Jon and I decided on Sunday to take Heather to Te Puia which is the most visited park in Rotorua but they do put on a good cultural show and as she had not seen any Maori traditions we thought we would go there.
We have discovered that if you say you are living in NZ you get into attractions cheaper even if you are English so that is what we do now.
Te Puia has the biggest geyser in Rotorua, Pohutu, and it goes off two or three times an hour and is very impressive. They also have a Maori village there to look around.
At the start of the show a Maori woman asks for a male tourist to be 'chief'. Jon and I knew this would happen having seen the show before and we had planned for him to put himself forward much to Heather's shock and our amusement. The chief's family also get front row seats in the 'Marea' which is a bonus. We really enjoyed the dancing and singing and particularly the Haka.
After that it was lunchtime and then off to the Redwood Forest to see if we could hire bikes for a ride but we couldn't find the right place so went off to see the Buried Village and the Blue and
Green Lakes.
The buried village was buried in the eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886 when the beautiful pink and white bathing terraces (these were a big tourist attraction) were also lost. It was a lovely walk around the village and it shows where the hotel was and also some reconstructed buried houses. It must have been so frightening for the people at the time as they would not have understood what was happening and the scale of it was enormous, very scary. 120 people were killed.
The walk takes you alongside a trout stream with lots of fish in it and although fast flowing is not deep. However, it leads to a lovely waterfall which is about a 30 ft drop and really pretty and as it was such a surprise I was really pleased for Heather to see it as it is the first high one she has seen.
Further along the road is a lookout over Lake Tarawera to the mountain and to see how far the lava must have flowed was really impressive.
On the way back we stopped at the Blue lake so called as the bottom is pumice and reflects blue and the green lake so called cos it is green but I don't know why! Both very peaceful though.
We were by this time getting really tired so headed off home. We have had three really busy days and although when writing about it, it doesn't seem much but believe me it was!
I helped Heather get some packing done. So far her case does not seem too heavy but I am sure once the last things go in she is going to be overweight!
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