Waikuta Marae

What a great start to the day! Everyone woke up psyched for an early morning rendez-vous with the owner of the Rotorua Hideaway Lodge to feed the resident alpacas. Irene is an immigrant from China who took over ownership of the Lodge, together with her husband, about 1-2 years ago. She is obviously an alpaca enthusiast, as they brought them onto the property for no clear business reason, and she clearly loves showing them off to guests!

In addition to feeding the alpacas, Irene also let the kids feed the chickens and then took us on a sort of egg hunt! Apparently proper free-range chickens may lay their eggs anywhere in the field - not always in the same place each day - and in the autumn toward wintertime, maybe even only once every 3-4 days. It's not at all easy to be sure that one has found all the eggs on any given day and so the only real solution is to always tread carefully! Irene kindly let the kids keep the eggs that they found - a fine addition to tomorrow's breakfast.Read more