Rotorua (Tauranga), New Zealand

We were on the move last night after 3 days in Auckland.

We docked in the Port of Tauranga . The Port of Tauranga is the largest port and fastest growing city in New Zealand. The two major exports from the Port of Tauranga are Kiwi fruit and timber. Kiwi fruit is not native to New Zealand, it was imported from China where it was called gooseberry . It was renamed Kiwi fruit because the exterior of the fruit resembles the kiwi bird.

Bob had breakfast at the World Cafe while I cleaned up the stateroom and tried to call my family. We are currently a day ahead of the United States which makes it difficult to communicate by phone.

We headed at 8:10 AM to the Star Theater to get our bus assignment. We are venturing to the geothermal area in Rotorua. As we drove from Tauranga to Rotorua, we drove past quite new industrial parks, retirement developments, and housing developments. We also observed beautiful, green countryside, acres and acres of Kiwi orchards and pine forests. This area is so furtile because of all the ash from the volcanic activity in the area.

We arrived at Te Puia, met our guide, toured a kiwi bird enclosure, mud pools and geysers. There is an amazing contrast between the green foliage and the stark landscape immediately surrounding the geysers.

We next toured a Maori school where students were learning Maori skills such as stone carving, wood carving and weaving/bead work.

The next activity was a Maori ceremony complete with singing and dancing. The Maori are warriors. I assume that their crazy, menacing facial expressions were developed in an attempt to scare of attacking tribes. They, indeed, look insane.

We were then treated to a buffet lunch. The food was surprisingly delicious.

After a brief stop at the gift shop, we boarded the bus for the trip to the ship.

We drove by Lake Rotorua and stopped at Sulfur Bay for a Photography stop. In Sulfur Bay one can observe the delineation between the highly sulfuric water and the fresh water.

We had a delightful dinner in the restaurant with Darrell and Sally Waller. We were almost late to the theater because we were having such great conversation with the Wallers.

The guest entertainer for this evening was Gemma Luxton who was purported to be one of Australia's most in-demand artist. The show was to be an Adele tribute. We were disappointed with the performance and ended up leaving the show early.Read more