Day 49: Tauranga, New Zealand

Today, we visited Tauranga. It's a city about halfway down the eastern side of the North Island. Demographically, it's the fifth largest city in NZ at 161,000 and is growing fast. Although it's known for trade, business, and a huge harbor - it's famous for two things. First, it is a surfing and beach paradise. Together with its cousin, Maunganui, it features a massive beach used for national volleyball and lifeguard competitions. Second, it is the Kiwi capital of the country. That's kiwi, as in the fruit, not the bird or the people. So, true, we visited on a Saturday, but the beach was jammed with food trucks, commercial tents, and the tents of local surf and swim clubs. There is not a parking spot to be found. Allison described it as a high-class Jersey Shore town.

The Bay of Plenty, where the town is located, was the first landing spot of the Maori back in the late 1200s. You can understand why they settled here with a temperate climate, sheltered harbor, and plenty of wood, water, and wildlife. Europeans arrived on Friday, June 23rd, 1826, and held a church service the following Sunday. Predictably, things went downhill from there. Back then, the primary trading item was flax. As historical military trivia, Tauranga was the site, in 1864, of the worst defeat the British suffered in the Maori Wars. 

Geologically, the city is located on a fault line and experiences very infrequent seismic activity, and unlike most of NZ, the volcanoes are (were!) considered dormant. Until 2019. When a volcano on White Island exploded (a tourist resort site) and killed 19 people. That contrasts with about 40-50 miles inland .. which brings us to our outing for the day. 

We (reluctantly) joined a bus tour to visit Te Puia Park in Rotorua. It's a historic Maori site and also has mud pots and geysers. Fun.

The visit started with a traditional Maori greeting and challenge. Then, we moved inside and listened to a 20-minute song and dance performance. The voices were amazingly strong and projected a long, long way. You still feel that it's all a bit prefabricated for the tourists. After that, we saw some carving and weaving stations - which I enjoyed as the students (it's a craft school) were really chatty and loved talking about their art. 

Then we left the cultural center, visited a kiwi breeding station, and (finally) got to the hot springs and geysers. There are over 100 geysers in the park, with about 6-7 active at any time. They stay active for 10-20 years and then go dormant, and another one starts up. It's like a game of whack-a-mole played out over generations. I managed to "lose" the tour guide for about ten minutes (the usual 'we don't have enough time to get to the end of the path') and got to the end of the path to get some better quality photos and witnessed one of the geysers going off. This photo looks way more impressive than real life; it is an example of perspective and angles. 

There are a few more shots of the geyser plateau below ... next up, we get to Napier - still on Northern Island - and have a reception at a vineyard.