Looking back at my two weeks in Rotorua, I’m happy I saw so much and am happy I got to meet the Dixon family. At the same time, I am still exhausted a few days after leaving. The hosts I stayed with were a small family of five living on a lifestyle block. This means they have ten ha. of land or less and keep small numbers of live stock. The Dixon’s have 12 sheep, 2 pigs, three cows, and five chickens. To make a profit on their land, they would have to own a much larger property with much larger numbers of live stock. The family I visited in Waipu had 40 chickens and made just the smallest amount of income over paying for their feed.
The three kids in this family, Lily 14, Room 11, and Aste 6, each have two or more extracurricular activities per week. John was just accepted to a youth rugby league and was also playing for the local league for a week or two before deciding to play only for the new one. Many pro rugby players got their start in the team he plays for now. During those two weeks, though, he was playing six days a week and doing guitar lessons. Lily has a horse who she trains for competitions. She recently decided not to continue ballet. Aste plays rugby and takes karate lessons.
Corinne and Sheridan both work. He works full time at a brewery and coffee roasting company that supports his bosses restaurant. Corinne works part time as a secretary for a travel consultation business. She also belongs to two book clubs and manages the wwoofers who come to work.
Rotorua is the city most like the U.S. that I have seen so far. The city center is so much like many of the touristy cities in California, though all the buildings are one story tall.
This city is very near Hobbiton, which is $75.00 to visit. Good thing I’m not terribly interested. What is abundant to see is the beautiful scenery. Most of the geology of New Zealand is volcanic. That is more visible here than at most other locations. Though there are up-cropings of volcanic rock from the landscape anywhere you go, the thermal activity here is even present in the park near the city center where sulfur-smelling steam is pushed into the air at fenced off areas. There is a museum dedicated to a city buried in the ashes of a volcanic eruption, not surprisingly called The Buried City.
The sand of the lake beaches is composed of pumice and obsidian. The water is so clear and clean!
Maori culture:
In each place I have visited, I am reminded of the respect that is given to Maori people. Each Maori person belongs to an Iwi, which is somewhat like a Native American tribe. I don’t want to make too many comparisons, because Native American people and Maori people are part of two distinctly different cultures. One of the legal differences is the respect that is given to their culture in schools and city ordinances. This careful treatment evolved from the treaty of Waitangi.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/treaty-of-waitangi
As opposed to many colonized areas of the world, the Maori were given back much of their land. Though there are still some processes to legally return pieces of land that have not been appropriated in sales and private property. Some Iwis have adapted better than others to colonized legal processes. Those who have adapted better to legal negotiations have been returned much more of their land. Some Iwis have retained their waring cultures, which causes such chaos in negotiations that one solid decision or plan for negotiation cannot be reached.
Be careful where you choose to go sight seeing. My host in Rotorua is a travel consultant, and advised that I go see the Maori Living Village. I did not suspect that anyone actually lived there, but that it would be a sort of museum village. I was so wrong and it was so uncomfortable to be toured around a place where people live and sustain their livelihood by turning their home into a Disneyland – like tourist attraction. The message seemed to be – we are letting you in because we have to make money, and the government keeps trying to encroach on our land. Look at our traditional homes and dances and leave. – Eek, I wouldn’t want to put my life on display by necessity either.
The tour guide explained that they have been giving tours since a thermal eruption about 100 years ago destroyed their natural tourist attraction. There used to be what they called Pink and White Terraces. This was a geothermal rock created by silica deposits. I’ll list both wikipedia and Living Village links below.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_and_White_Terraces
While I was there, though, I learned a little about how the Maori people live and share space. The guide explained that the village is like one large house and each house is like a room. People share space as if they all owned everything equally. Family members walk in to one another’s dwellings without much warning. This is a lot like how space was shared at the hot pools near Kaikohe. People migrated among the pools as they liked and were fairly social and welcoming.
Before leaving Rotorua, I was offered some paid work for one day cleaning horse stalls for a friend of the Dickson family. I needed the $120.00 I earned, though it was a back breaking eight hours of shoveling horse shit, and substrate soaked with urine. It was cool to have a work mate during that time. Afterword, my lungs were sore and I started having trouble with sinus congestion. The rest of my body hurt for a day, but I ended up with a cold. I’m in Kumeu spending a few days recovering now.
I have found that most wwoofers take a few days to themselves every month. I didn’t plan that into my travel time, and probably made myself sick with the constant work, exploration, and travel. My new plan, keep going at the same pace kuz I only have three weeks left in NZ!
I had an opportunity to travel with a fellow wwoofer to Waimangu Volcanic Valley! They have great descriptions of their geological history and current formations! Rather than explain it, I’ll leave you with a link to their web site:
Hanging out with the Kiwis 