Oooh, ahhh, ouch...everything is sore from our hike! We arrived yesterday in Rotorua, the geothermal capital of New Zealand. We also chose our accommodation based on the availability of a thermal pool on site which we thoroughly enjoyed this morning. Today we spent the whole day wandering (slowly) through the grounds of Te Puia thermal reserve, which contains the country's largest geyser and used to be a Maori settlement. The reserve also had a 45-min cultural performance, to share Maori games, songs and a demonstration of haka, the traditional war dance. Rotorua is the largest Maori city in New Zealand. There are only ~700,000 Maori descendants, of which 95% are mixed blood. Our Maori tour guide's name was Paul Mc-something. The reserve is also home to the NZ Maori Arts and Crafts institute, which has a 3-year wood carving program taught by Maori master carvers. One condition of admission is that you must be at least 1/64 Maori.
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