A bit cloudy first thing but we had decided that today we would visit the redwoods in Whakarewarewa Forest and then go on to Te Puia the Geothermal Valley. The Redwoods were planted in 1901 and thrived in the New Zealand Climate. They now stand at around 197 feet high and 64.5 inches in diameter, too wide to encircle with your arms. They are grow at a surprising rate and the wood is very light. We felt like dwarfs up against the trees and had a job to see the tops. We intended to do a 2 hour walk which would take us to a view point overlooking a the Whaka thermal area but once more the weather beat us and having seen the redwoods we turned back half way drenched.
After drying off the rain stopped and we decided go on to the Geothermal Valley. This was absolutely amazing. The Maoris realised that their crafts such as carving and weaving were gradually dying out as the skills were not being handed down. The valley where Te Puia and the geothermal valley is was given into the care of the Maoris and a scholarship system was set up for young men between the ages of 18 and 30 to train under a master carver and thus retain the ancient skills. No scholarships for the ladies, however, they just get volunteers to do the weaving. We joined a tour led by a Maori and saw some of the carvers and weavers in action. We have all read about the geysers and the hot stones that you could fry an egg on, well it's true and to top it all today we actually saw 2 live kiwi. What a day.
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