Day 229 (February 6): Report from Rotorua

This picture has to go first. It shows the ramp, the lights and the walkways at the Redwoods Elevated Trail

Once upon a time, a long time ago (2019) in a place far, far away (USA), we had to make hard choices about how to allocate our time in New Zealand. Based on limited information, we gave ourselves four nights in Rotorua. We thought it would be a good base for exploring mighty Lake Taupo to the south, the famous glow worm caves to the west and various cultural and natural attractions in the immediate vicinity.

In hindsight, it's clear that we'd need about a month to do the things in this part of the North Island that we thought we might pack into a few days. In fact, we did none of them.

Our arrival was very simple. Rotorua airport is tiny and between us we rented 2 of approximately 10 vehicles held by Hertz at this location. It was a five minute drive from the airport to our rental house and we spent all of it relishing the fact that we were driving civilian vehicles and not motorhomes.

The main thing that you hear about Rotorua before arriving is that it smells terrible on account of sulfur emissions from geothermal activity. It is true that when you are close to and downwind from one of the many sources, you can smell sulfur. But most of the time we were not close, we were upwind and that wind was a lovely breeze. But even at its worst, I never found the odor a problem. You shouldn't avoid Rotorua because of it.

Rotorua is also well known for the contemporary presence of Maori communities. Although it is trite, I'll say that the tourist experience of this is quite like going to a luau in Hawaii. Our visit to Te Puia included a "cultural performance"in which we learned about some Maori traditions, heard some local myths and enjoyed the performance of some songs and dances. We even got to participate in some of the dancing, which meant that Wally and I have now "done" a Haka.

Te Puia also includes a tour of geothermal sites, which was a little like going to see Old Faithful in the setting of a small zoo. It was hot but we got to see one of the main geysers spouting 100 feet in the air for a few minutes. There was also bubbling mud and even a darkened indoor exhibit where we got to see one of the elusive Kiwi (the bird, not the resident).

Another big highlight of our house was that it had shoreline on Lake Rotorua and included two basic kayaks. It became hard to get the kids out of the water. Furthermore, the lake is very shallow so we could really let the kids go out on the own. Even better, the house nextdoor was home to a Canadian family on an extended holiday; they were nice enough to bring along their 5-1/2 year old son who was promptly adopted by the twins. We even attempted a sleepover during our stay!

Quite a ways out and this diligent adult is only up to their knees.

One of the funniest episodes: Henry caught this fish, which would be more impressive if the fish had been alive when he caught it. Even a little bit. Nevertheless, Henry picked up this big animal and carried it to us with pride. So why not have a photo shoot?

While we were in Rotorua, we also had a visit from another world schooling family. On a smart tip, we've joined a number of Facebook groups dedicated to world schooling. Some of them are geographically specific and others are just affinity groups for our peers. They are great forums for gathering advice, sharing concerns, asking for tips and organizing meet ups. In this way, we met Juliet and Loren and their three boys who have been at this for about a year and a half. We traded our newly-acquired New Zealand expertise for their vast wisdom of navigating the world school lifestyle. And we ate a good dinner!

But probably the most memorable experience we had was the twilight walk through the elevated Redwood Forest path. This tourist attraction is probably fun during the day but it is truly magical at night. Horticulturally speaking, there is a habitat of mega-evergreens in this nook of NZ, the only place that isn't northern California or the Pacific Northwest (i.e., home). Architecturally speaking, this park has installed ramps, platforms and suspension bridges in a way that is not harmful to the trees' delicate bark. The lights are fantastic, though. There are some hanging "lanterns," some projected light features and more. We can only hope that these pictures do it some justice.

This was a good place to begin decompressing from our two weeks in the RVs. We did a ton of laundry, cooked at ate in a full size kitchen, slept in separate rooms and occupied abundant space. Elise did some working out, I went for a run and the kids spent as much time as possible in the water. When it was over, we had the relatively simple task of loading our gear into our two rental cars without having to think about airports, security and everything air travel entails. Next stop: Whitianga!