Hobitton and Rotarua

22nd
We drove south and west from Huntley towards Matamata where there is a farm that houses the only surviving evidence that the Lord of the Rings trilogy was ever filmed here. The Hobbit village of Hobbiton was made on a sheep farm in the area, when the filming was finished demolition of the whole set began but after a few days the rain came down and the demolition work had to be abandoned for safety reasons. The winter had set in and no more work could be done until spring. Over the winter flocks of people came to the farm asking to see the site and the owners realised what a money making venture they could have and so started negotiations to have the site left and to allow them to operate tours of the site. It took 2 years to finally get full agreement and so we went to see what remained. Incredibly most of the set was made of polystyrene, so none of that remains, but several of the hobbit house fronts are still in situ and the party tree and lake are original to the site (that is why the farm was chosen), our guide explained where everything was, how the sets were made etc.... it didn't mean much to me as I'm not a real fan, but Celso and Tris seemed to know what he was talking about!!! On our 2 hour tour we saw the first real rain that we have seen in months, I think since January!! Then we watched a strapping young Kiwi shearing a sheep explaining about how the wool industry works etc. Then Tris bottle fed a lamb before we set off again in our van.
Eastwards, to Rotarua where we are going to stay for a few days. We have found a fatastic little campsite on a river that flows down into the huge Rotarua lake. Celso immediately went off fishing and Tristan is amusing some ducks that come begging around the van. The laundry is in, the sun is out and we have time to relax.

23rd
By 10am we were at Rainbow Springs; a wildlife and Kiwi conservation park. They had all sorts of native birds on show set amongst fantastic native bush and a volcanic mineral spring stream that (apparently) is water that fell as rain about 50 years ago and has slowly been filtering through volcanic rock ever since until it emerges in the natural spring at the top of the park. We collected some of the water to taste later! We saw Kea (a large ground parrot endemic to NZ that is endangered like the Kiwi because it is flightless and therefore prey to the many introduced carnivourous species) and Kaka (that can fly short distances but still in peril), there were an enormous number of rainbow trout in the stream that were introduced from the US in the late 1800s, they are free to come and go as they please as the stream flows into the Rotaroa Lake (where Celso went fishing last night with no luck!). At 11am we went on our Kiwi experience tour where we went to see behind the scenes at the Kiwi conservation breeding program. We learnt all about the Kiwi, saw eggs being incubated, watched a sped up video of a hatching (they take about 3 days), saw a newly hatched chick and month old chicks that still hadn't regained their birth weight (they lose about half their birth weight as they use up their yolk sac) and then some that had regained their birthweight so were out in natural enclosures but in a darkened area so that we could see them out and about. We could have watched for hours, they are so endearing and completely odd (no other words for it!).
The eggs are taken from under the male (who does all the incubating) when they are about 40 days old, then incubated artificially for another 40 days or so until they hatch; this time is so exhausting for the chick that it then just lays around for about a week, living off the yolk sac. There first meal is then usually some sticks or stones to put in their crops and then they should start eating worms, insects, fruit and seeds. In about a month they should regain their birthweight and after 6 months they weigh about 1kg and are strong enough to defend themselves against predators; so they are released back out into the wild.
Monitoring has shown that only 5% of wild reared chicks survive to breeding age, but with the captive rearing program 75% survive - so it is really working.
Here are some interesting facts about Kiwis:-
They have the shortest beak of any bird even though they are really long!!! This is because officially a beak is measured from the nostrils to the tip of the beak but since the Kiwi is the only bird to have its nostrils at the end of its beak (rather than on its head) then this measurement is really tiny.
Kiwis are one of only a few types of bird that have a good sense of smell
The Kiwi has bone marrow whereas other birds have hollow bones to reduce weight and help with flying.
Kiwi feathers are practically like hair, they are so thin and fine.
Kiwis have whiskers at the base of their beak
Kiwis have huge ears and have excellent hearing
The Kiwis wings are tiny, they look like a little finger and only have a few feathers on the upper surface and a large claw at the end.
Kiwis hatch from the egg with adult feathers, they have no fluffy, downy chick stage.
Compared to its body size the Kiwi lays the largest eggs of any birds (up to 6 times a year), in human terms it would be like giving birth to a 4 year old!
Male Kiwis do the incubating of the egg as the mother recovers from the trauma of producing and laying the egg!
Kiwis don't have an egg tooth, that is why it takes them so long to hatch.
Kiwis have massive legs for their size, they use them for digging, defence and in the females case to carry around the huge eggs that can take up to 30 days to develop before they are laid.
We all fell in love with the Kiwis.

The park also had some Tuataras (the lizard that hasn't changed in over 200 million years), did you know that they can survive on two meals a year and can breathe as little as once an hour. Also geckos and skinks, parakeets, chickens, ducks, pigs, sheep, quail, pheasant, donkeys, possums and wallabies - a little haven for animal lovers like us... needless to say we spent a happy few hours there.

We then went into the centre of town to a park we had passed yesterday where we could see clouds of steam rising from fenced off areas - we had to investigate. The smell was sulphurous and not very pleasant but we wandered around, perhaps, 100 hot springs or mud holes. Fantastic slurping sounds as the mud bubbled up and we got some pretty good mud boiling pictures too!

At 5pm we were picked up from our campsite to go to a Mauri Hangi, a traditional earth oven (hot stones) meal like the Umu we had in Rapa Nui. It was a much less exclusive affair with over 100 guests, so for me it wasn't quite as good an experience as we never had perfect views of what was going on, but Celso and Tris loved it. We were met by Mauri warriors who assessed if we were friend or foe; then, after they had given the all clear we were sang an invitation song by the head Maori woman of the village. We all went into the village and were shown a building (however there wasn't enough time to see all the different buildings) and then rushed off to the meeting house where we were treated to traditional songs and dances. All the dances had some sort of training value; strengthening the upper body, the legs or wrists; and also a story to tell. Both the men and the women used large pom poms on strings which they waved around with great precision (not hitting their neighbours and very much in time with each other), short sticks which they bashed and tossed to each other, or long poles which they managed to manipulate into the most excruciating positions around their torsos!! The men had the lower halves of their faces tattood with intricate patterns (full facial is for chiefs only) and the women had their chins and lips tattood (to me it looked a bit like they had been sick!). The majority of the women are very chunky with square faces and tightly pulled back hair (they reminded me a bit of Sumo wrestlers!), but they were amazingly swift and delicate in their dance movements. It was not as sweaty and energetic a performance as the Rapa Nui one but more calming and mezmerising with beautiful harmonies in the songs. There were several occassions in the songs when they managed to widen their eyes so that the whites looked enormous, it looked quite intimidating but some were smiling at the same time so I'm not sure of its significance and there was no opportunity to ask. There were also a few occasions when the tongues were stuck out so that they touched the bottom of their chins, this is a challenge or initimidation pose.
The performance over we were rushed on again to a huge dining area and a buffet meal, good food, but we didn't see it coming out of the ground, though they showed us how it would have been cooked after the meal. The wood that is burnt, to get the volcanic rocks white hot at 900C, is Tea Tree as it is full of oil (Tea Tree oil) and burns very hot. Here they use flax, a waxy leafed sort of grassy plant (looked like a succulent cactus to me) instead of banana leaves to wrap up the food, but our meal was actually cooked in metal baskets and covered in sacking, before the earth was piled on top. Not very authentic!
I just felt rushed, pushed here and there, no time to explore the village or take photos.
The bus ride back to town was fun though, lots of singing including a rendition of 'She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes' whilst we drove round and round (and round) a roundabout - you had to be there, I suppose.

24th
It rained all day today, sometimes a shower and sometimes pelting down, until we returned a bit wet and uncomfortable to the campsite at 3.30pm. As soon as we arrived out came the sun (b*****d). Anyway we spent the time looking at Maori wood carvings and visiting a wildlife park (the ticket for which was free when we did the Maori Hangi yesterday). I find the carvings a little ugly, the wood is beautiful but it is shaped into these grotesque figures with large bottoms, a long penis and a protruding tongue, not really something I want to look at everyday! The masks are a little better with carved versions of the tattoos but still not aesthetically beautiful. All three of us had different ideas of what looked good, (me just the plain wood, Celso the masks, and Tris liked a sort of totum pole carving) we ended up getting nothing!!!
We wandered around the wildlife park in the rain, the best animal was an enormous male pig who came up to the fence and raised his head waiting for you to pour food into his open mouth, he was a really funny sight. The Keas were beautiful; the stream was packed with enormous trout (free to go down to the river and on to Lake Rotarua but chosing to stay and be fed by the visitors); there was a very randy male deer who was challenging a bull and a tree(!) in his paddock; loads of ducks, geese and swans; sheep, alpacas, donkeys and wallabies; a tree top walk; and at 2.30pm we went to watch the lion feeding. There is a very healthy and happy looking pride of 7, dominant male (10) and his 3 year old son who is now larger than his dad and vying for the top spot (both showed signs of a recent fight that they had had, one with a bloody lip, the other with a bloody leg). Then 7 females, the oldest at 21 years showing signs of her age with a droopy lip and bowed back legs. They were fed horse meat (the most like zebra that the park can find) by hurling it over the fence as we watched; there was lots of leaping and grasping at the air in order to claim their share; the dominant male put a few of the others in their place and then made lots of moaning roaring sounds when the supply of meat ran out. This is one of the main lion breeding prides in Australasia and they looked like a really well kept bunch. It was a great experience.