Whakarewarewa

On Sunday we first visited the Whakarewarewa Maori village. I didn’t know pretty much anything about the Maori culture before so it was so nice to get to know some things about it. First we had a guided tour around the village where the guide told us about their way of living, cooking, bathing as well as some history and facilities. One of the most interesting things to learn was the Maori alphabet. They have only 13 letters (a, e, h, i, k, m, n, o, p, r, t, u, w) and also two letters that form one sound (wh, ng). The guide made us repeat some words and for me it’s quite easy to pronounce the Maori words because they sound (at least in my opinion) like they could be Finnish so I know how to pronounce them. And the names of some places are the same, easy to pronounce. For example Rotorua, Takapuna, Punakaiki, Mount Ruapehu, Piha, Paihia… See, they sound like Finnish, right? :D

After the guided tour, there was a little cultural performance of the Maori people. They sang and did some dancing. And we also got to participate in Poi dance. ‘Poi’ is a ball with a small rope that they use with the dancing.

After the Maori village, we walked to the Redwoods and did another walk over there. This time it was a bit longer than the previous day and totally worth it! We ended up in a lookout where we saw the whole city area. It was such a great view!

Rainbow Mountain

Our next stop was the Rainbow Mountain Reserve where we hiked up the mountain which took about 1,5 hours one way. On Friday we were thinking about taking the gondola up to a mountain near the city centre but luckily we didn’t because I think it’s more awesome if you hike up by yourself and get rewarded with the great views. And there truly were some great views from the mountain!

 

After Rainbow Mountain, we drove to the Redwoods and did about 1,5h walk in the forest. Around Rotorua and especially near the thermal areas there’s quite a bad smell (everyone warns about that before going to Rotorua) so it was so nice to walk around a forest and have some good smells. :D It smelled so nice and fresh in the woods.

  

Last stop of the day was the Blue & Green Lakes. At first we thought about doing some walks around there but because we had been walking the whole day, we just drove there to see them. :D And it was a good decision because soon after we left there, it got dark so we couldn’t have even done any long walks. 

The Blue Lake was obviously blue but the Green Lake wasn’t as green as I thought it would be. But when you compared them, you could see the difference between them.

 

After the Lakes, we drove back to the rental company to give the car back. It was such a great decision to rent it because it was so easy for us to go around places the whole day. And it was so nice to drive such a small car after driving the big car of my hostfamily. :D