Day 13--Tauranga

Again late, for reason see previous post.

Bay of Plenty beach

Tanis and I had signed up for our first tour to be in Tauranga. This tour was 8 ½ hours long, so we thought it was the best value to be had of all the tours offered by Princess. We started by driving around Tauranga, which is a beautiful seaside town on the Bay of Plenty. From there, we set out for the Te Puia Thermal Reserve, driving through kiwi, avocados, hops, corn and lots of sheep and cattle. Then we came to the plantations of pine, which are harvested after 20 years of growth and shipped overseas as logs to be returned to NZ and other places as paper and pressboard. The Kiwis call the Bay of Plenty the “Kiwi Capital of the World,” but have recently been having a big problem with a black fungus that kills the plants.

Te Puia thermal reserve

Beautiful maori design

We arrived in Rotorua after about and hour and a half driving. Rotorua is actually the caldera of a volcano, the center of which is a lake about 26 miles around. Very scenic, which is why it is a resort area with steaming springs and mud pots common. I'm not sure I would like to live in such a volcanically active region. We went to the Te Puia Thermal Reserve and Maori Arts&Crafts Institute for a tour, and walked all over the place...saw a real kiwi-the bird-also.  Unimpressive, looks like a dirty brown chicken.

Soup on top, squash in middle
you can tell what the rest is

For lunch we were served a Maori hanga---think luau, as the food is steamed in the ground. We were offered chicken, pork and lamb, squash and sweet potato, scalloped potatoes, curry, watercress and sweet potato soup, and for desert pavlova, which I quite like. Neither Tanis nor I are sure that pavlova was an indigenous food of the Maori.

NZ sheep breeds

After lunch we saw a show at the Agrodome, which featured sheep breeds in New Zealand, sheep shearing, cow milking, lamb feeding. Nothing new for me, but well presented. After, we drove through Rotorua, around the lake, and back to the ship.

Kia Ora to you. This is the Maori equivalent of hello, goodbye and good health, just like aloha.