While passing through Te Rui we saw the Giant Dog, which was quite a sight. Later we stopped in Cambridge, where we'd had tea with Chas and Lucy, for a gas and bathroom break, but nothing much was open. But at a small bakery we got our first (OK, Josh's first) meat pies. What an experience! The pie log was born, with the inspiration of Ian Telfer's beer report. It was a very nice pie. Mushroom and steak.

We stayed at the Lake Plaza Hotel in Rotorua, which was right on the Lake. Possibly not so good, given the occasional whiff of sulfur that wafted off every so often. We stopped into a chemists as Josh was battling hay fever, but were back at the hotel in time to be picked up at 6:15 for the bus to the hangi.

There was some confusion, despite my having confirmed our reservations from Te Kauwhata, and I think they thought we were the Chus, as they had no record of the Eckert-Chus. Grrr. But they let us on the bus. The Tamaki Tours is the best-known of the concert and hangi tours.

The bus driver's name was Wally and he was basically a Maori Egg Chen. He told us Maori words and phrases and had us say them back, like in a language class. Our favorite new word was "pakepake" (pronounced "pahki-pahki") which means "applause." He also chose a chief to represent our bus, Waka 94. He said the chief had to be a man, but was quick to explain that this did not mean that women do not have high status in the Maori culture. I imagine some of the great Maori women (Kahe comes to mind) might have had a problem with that assessment. However, it really wasn't an issue for a bus full of foreign tourists.

The welcoming ceremony, which we were allowed and encouraged to film, was thrilling and beautiful. A lone warrior came out with his taiawha, a long club/spear combo and did a great martial display (I kept thinking of it as a kata, a series of ritualized movements) while other warriors stood on the stockade siging and making the faces. There were women singing also, though you could not see them. That ceremony ended with all the chiefs of the 5 buses following the lone warrior into the stockade. We piled in after a moment (when we were told to.)

Behind the stockade was a recreated Maori village among the pine-scented trees. It wasn't a fortified pa, which were mainly built on top of hills and other easily defensible positions. This was an earlier style of village. I though it was great. In front of each small A-frame shaped wood hut was a person or two, demonstrating some of the games (poi swinging, story-singing, haka practice, an imitation game) while we wandered around and looked at them.

Eventually, we were led into the big "wharemu" (not sure I have the word right) for the concert. It was very impressive -- great singing and haka and poi-dances and they even did the tossing sticks game. Very cool. Afterwards we went to the dining hall, where we ended up being seated at a back table that we rightly suspected was the employtee table (due to the mess-up with our names).

The food was wonderful, however, and the employees were certainly very nice. A hangi is a lot like a clambake: they dig a big pit in the ground, build a fire in it, put food in, in flax baskets, then cover it up and let it steam for a long time. The food had a terrific smoky flavor, lamb and chicken and kumara and potatoes. there was also an amazing "seafood salad" that was basically the most amazlling ceviche I've ever had. Yum!

After dinner we were encouraged to go spend money in the "Tribal Village" where each hut was selling something different. I'm a little sorry we didn't get our picture taken in Maori cloaks doing the hongi (pressing noses together) but it just felt too disrespectful.

On the bus ride back to the hotel, the chief of the bus read out the nationalities of everyone on the bus and you had to sing a song from your country when he called yours out. Josh and I were the only Americans on the bus (loads of Norwegians, though) and we provided a rousing rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" rather than the usual nationalistic options.

A very full day in Rotorua started with an excellent breakfast at the Fat Dog Cafe. We have discovered that asking for a "Flat White" will get you something like a strong latte with plenty of foam. It was our coffee selection of choice for the next three weeks.

Cori did some work, yes! work! at an Internet cafe while Josh wandered around and discovered a familiar name (Spence!). I was glad to get my story filed, so we could properly vacation.

We drove out of town south past the very inviting Blue Lake to the Buried Village of Te Wairoa. It has a nice explanatory museum, all about the Pink and White Terraces, the surrounding communities of Maori and Europeans, and the eruption of Mount Tawarewa nearby that destroyed them all in 1886. The Maori village was covered in mud and ash and has been excavated. Outside the museum you walk on a path through the village and you can go in the semi-buried whares and European buildings. There is a line of enormously tall poplar trees that were originally fenceposts in the village, and are now maybe 50 to 100 feet tall. There was a walk along the cliffs through the woods to a 30-foot waterfall that was beautiful.

After a restorative ice cream cone and sausage roll, we headed on to the Hell's Gate Thermal Reserve and Mud Baths/Spa, on the road back towards Rotorua. I had been there when I was a kid, and I was pleased it hadn't changed much. Still stinky, still steaming mud pools, and bubbling hot pools.

We did the entire loop walk, including the upper part. We got to see a hot waterfall, big hot lakes and many warning signs about the dangers of straying off the path. They're very serious. Every now and then the wind would waft a big gust of stinky sulfur fumes into our faces. We had a cup of tea in the tearoom (as you can see, we are already addicted to afternoon tea) and then Josh drove us back top Rotorua, his first time behind the wheel on the left.

We got back to the hotel, picked up our swim suits and headed to the Blue Baths, built in the 1920s and recently restored as part of the Government Gardens complex, which includes the Art Museum and the Museum of Rotorua. It was 5pm when we arrived, and they close at 6pm, but we had a wonderful relaxing swim in the thermally heated pool. There are hotter shallow side pools as well.

While we were there a class of youngsters was having a swimming lesson in a roped-off lane. Even though it was 5pm, it was still plenty hot and light out, so I got another bit of a burn in the pool, so another trip to a different chemist came later.

After the swim we were pretty relaxed. We went for quite a long walk looking for somewhere to eat dinner. Passed up a Mediterranean place that looked expensive for a pretty mediocre place that was cheaper, alas.

The next morning we got packed up and ready to set off for Napier.