Te Puia

On Sunday we went to Te Puia home of the Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao (the gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao) and Pohutu geyser shooting up 30 meters (100 feet) up to 20 times a day and is the longest running geyser in the world.  

When we got there Laura and I walked around through a model Maori village and saw what a traditional Maori home, a drying rack, a pataka (store house- used to keep animals away from the villages food as well as keep it off of the thermal ground to avoid cooking it.  We had been noticing as we walked around Rotorua that a lot of the wood had a orangeish stain on it, we were unsure if this was a mold or caused by the sulfur but we found out that it is caused by the sulfur and the Maori people used it as dye long ago. 

Then we met out tour guide and we walked down to see the geysers, the one on the left is the Prince of Wales Feather Geyser and the one on the right is the Pohutu Geyser.  They were going off but were about half way through so neither geyser was at its full height.  We walked around near the geysers and blue pool.  Then we walked to the mud pools were we got to see more boiling mud. 

This park has more than 500 springs ranging from cold to boiling water.  These were used once to cook, clean, and bathe in by the Maori people.  They also gathered here because of the warmth the thermal activity provided in the winter.  

 At the end of our tour we got to go through their kiwi house where we got to see two more kiwis.  They were very visible but this house had them behind glass so it wasn’t as cool of an experience as the night before at Rainbow Springs.  Once again we could not take pictures because of the sensitivity of the kiwis eyes.

After the tour Laura and I walked back down by the geysers because I really wanted to see them go off and at their full height.  We waited for a while to see it but it was well wroth it!  Then we headed back into town, I had fish and chips for lunch and we spent the last two hours at the Polynesian Spa soaking in natural hot spring water that was supposed to be good for the skin!  Over all it was an amazing weekend full of culture and cool sights.