Loring's New Zealand Trip blog

Kia ora (greetings) #2 from New Zealand,
and Happy St. Patrick's Day to all.

This is a denizen of our back yard. It's a Tree Weta. The one we met was about 1.5 inches long. The encounter was a bit startling.
So yes, Peter Jackson's Weta Studio in Wellington is named after a bug.
(Presumably the Wellington tree weta, Hemideina crassidens?)

Overall, to share our adventures with you, it's very tempting simply to provide a long list of urls. Period.
Such as--Here's the url for the Waitomo Caves, here's the url for the Ngaruawahia regatta of Maori wakas, here's the web site for the Hamilton Gardens Chinese Garden, etc. etc.
Maybe I'll put some in at the end. But meanwhile, here's our news.

Drought
Bikes, flowers
Kauri Loop
Karama Walkway
Raglan and the beach
Waitomo walks and caves
Regatta at Ngaruawahia

The drought got worse; finally it's raining

Most of NZ, and all of the North Island, has been in the grip of an historic drought. Rivers are at all-time lows; the entire countryside is brown and sere. There are garden watering bans all over, parks and public gardens have turned off fountains, and farmers (and their stock) are suffering. The sun and heat have been relentless.

Hiking, and actually all our adventures, have been overshadowed by the dry. In our subtropical forest walks, which should have had moist mosses, water drips and towering tree ferns, there has still been greenery, but also dusty hillsides and paths, withered tree leaves, and dry, rattling fronds.

It took a while for us to realize that the open hillsides in the cattle and sheep country, which look like central Montana--dusty tan pastures, with dried-up water holes--are not normal here. They should be green.

But today it is finally, finally raining. Hallelujah.

We’ve got bikes

We’ve bought sturdy used bikes from a nice little shop south of Hamilton Lake. And they are indeed sturdy. They almost weigh more in pounds than they cost in dollars. Well not quite. It's great. We'd forgotten how many groceries you can carry with two bikers, two backpacks, rear racks and a front basket.

The Flowers!

Blue Agapanthus

Even with the drought, there are flowers everywhere. NZ is a nation of gardeners, and many big and little back yards are full of roses; but in addition highways are lined with huge banks of flowering agapanthus and parks are full of flowering trees--even in late summer.

The roses in our back yard

Flowers in a park in Auckland

The Dahlias
During one of our visits to the Hamilton Gardens, the Hamilton Dahlia Club was having a show. (That's "Daaaaahia" to you, dahling.) Pretty spectacular flowers.

My hand and a dahlia

A prize-winning dahlia arrangement

We've taken some fantastic walks

(It's NZ, so they are walks, not hikes. And one goes tramping, not hiking.)
Kauri Loop Track and Hakarimata Walkway--Loring had a great few hours hiking north of Ngaruawahia. Great views and trees. Left-hand photo, below, is from the Dept. of Conservation (DOC) website, taken when things were normal and green. Right-hand photo is mine: the land is brown.

The Waikato again--my photo--it's brown

DOC Photo of the Waikato River
looking N. from Walkway--it's all green

A really big white pine on the Kauri Loop Track

And looking S. from the Hakarimata, out over the Waikato valley and plains

LS the tree hugger

The kauri is one of NZ's most spectacular trees. This one, on the Kauri Loop Track, is magnificent. It is over 1,000 years old, and predates even the earliest Maori arrival. But, as you can see below, at a mere 30 m tall (100 feet), it is relatively small compared to some other NZ trees. Wow.

The kauri I am hugging is the green image on the far right.

MHD and our car, Karamu Walkway

Karamu Walkway--On our way to the beaches at Raglan, on the west coast, we hiked part of the Karamu Walkway.

Rocks on the Karamu

Glorious air, sky, sharp hills, and views. Anywhere on the East coast of the US, this would be a famous trail. But here in Kiwiland, it is minor, compared to the REALLY spectacular walks--it isn't even mentioned in the guide books.
Wow again.

Fields that should be lush green

Ditto

A busy water hole

OK--more sensational trees.
MHD at Raglan

Ngarunui beach--
photo courtesy Raglan website

At Raglan, We also played in the waves at Ngarunui, one of Raglan's tamer beaches--not the ones with world-famous surf. We plan to return to Raglan, for kayaking the bay, and perhaps for a sunset...

Waitomo Walkway and Rurakuri Bushwalk--And then there was our trip south to Waitomo. The trails weren't even supposed to be the main attraction: that's the caves. But we build in some extra time on the trip for walking, and oh my.... This is another photo from the DOC website--so again, green fields.

Waitomo Walkway --photo from web

LS on the walkway

Waitomo is famous for its limestone caves, and the Rurakuri Bushwalk is on top of the ground above the Rurakuri Cave. The Bushwalk is in a deep gorge, and full of small caves, with the Waitomo River coming in and out from underground. The gorge is actually a former cave itself--over the eons, the roof of the cave gradually eroded and fell in.
Here's what it looks like:

Mike in a tunnel, Bushwalk

Another tunnel

More of the Rurakuri Bush Walk

The NZ DOC has wonderful trail engineers. We went thru tunnels, out on bridges, down to the stream, up and down great flights of steps.

Rappelers in the Bushwalk Gorge

MorerRappellers

More (sorry!) of the fantastic Bushwalk

And then there are the actual caves. There's a huge underground complex of caves, many interconnected, and quite a few are open to the public. And are they open. I haven't seen such a touristy place in quite a while. But we paid our money and went on a tour, and it was astonishing. The caves are full of stars! When you look up, the cave roofs are spangled with thousands of dots of light. These are the glow worms.

"The glow worm, Arachnocampa luminosa, is unique to New Zealand. Thousands of these tiny creatures radiate their unmistakable luminescent light."

They are small worms (larvae) that hang series of tiny luminescent threads from the cave roofs, to trap unwary bugs who may have come into the caves via river or wind. The cave we went in also had beautiful stalactites, in many different formations.

That day we hiked over 6 hours, some in the cave but much in the hot sun, so were pretty weary at the end. Beautiful drive home to Hamilton, with sun setting over the western mountains. (Easy for LS to say: I rested; Mike drove.)

On the Water

Saturday 3/16 we went to Ngaruawahia, north of Hamilton, for the annual regatta of Maori war canoes, or waka, on the Waikato River. It is hosted by the Turangawaewae marae*. What an amazing privilege to be here for the regatta. For starters, I've borrowed a couple of photos from the web.

*Marae: "In Māori society, the marae is a place where the culture can be celebrated, where the Māori language can be spoken, where intertribal obligations can be met, where customs can be explored and debated, where family occasions such as birthdays can be held, and where important ceremonies, such as welcoming visitors or farewelling the dead (tangihanga), can be performed. Like the related institutions of old Polynesia, the marae is a wāhi tapu, a 'sacred place' which carries great cultural meaning."
Turangawaewae: The great marae at Ngaruawahia, a center for Maori culture in the Waikato, and home of the king of central NZ Maori groups.
"'Ko Ngaaruawaahia taku tuurangawaewae – Ngaaruawaahia shall be my footstool.' Words uttered by Taawhiao, and ones which have echoed through time symbolising that Ngaaruawaahia would always be a place for Waikato Tainui people to find strength, security and a sense of belonging. Ngaaruawaahia, where for over 100 years, two rivers and a yearly regatta have linked Maaori and Paakeha together. It is a time when the older generation will relive and remember the past, where the rangatahi learn about the past in an atmosphere of fun and where all will celebrate the river and its culture."

Thousands of us--Maori and Pakeha (people of European descent)--gathered on the banks of the very low Waikato River to watch lots of boat races, eat fantastic fried fair midway food (the mussel fritters and the mango smoothies were delicious), to watch Maori dancing and singing, AND to witness the spectacular regatta of the great war canoes. The biggest waka had 36 paddlers, shouting their paddling chants as they paddled in unison, then raising their paddles and chanting a salute to the king as they passed the reviewing stand. And we got the chance to see TWO welcoming haka performed, by two different rowing teams.

"The Haka (plural is the same as singular: haka) is a traditional ancestral war cry, dance or challenge from the Māori people of New Zealand. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment.... Although the use of haka by the All Blacks rugby union team and the Kiwis rugby league team has made one type of haka familiar, it has led to misconceptions. Haka are not exclusively war dances or performed only by men. Some are performed by women, others by mixed groups, and some simple haka are performed by children. Haka are performed for various reasons: for amusement, as a hearty welcome to distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great achievements, occasions or funerals.....War haka (peruperu) were originally performed by warriors before a battle, proclaiming their strength and prowess in order to intimidate the opposition. Today, haka constitute an integral part of formal or official welcome ceremonies for distinguished visitors or foreign dignitaries, serving to impart a sense of the importance of the occasion."

OK, but that said, the war haka performed before matches by NZ rugby teams are pretty cool. For haka, you just have to go watch videos on the web:
A Maori haka:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-lrE2JcO44
And two haka, when the NZ All Blacks rugby team was welcomed by the king to the Turangawaewae Marae:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vxy_-e_hZ8

It was a fantastic day. As a postscript, we've put a ton more pictures of the regatta below, for those of you who are gluttons for regatta photos--canoe races, crowds, waka details, and fair food.

Cultural Notes:

It's neat living in a University town. We're had the chance to hear 3 interesting lectures, with a 4th coming up. We heard a visiting Canadian professor talk on First Nations land claims in Canada; a major talk by a Univ. of Reading (UK) expert on the origins and dissemination of human language; and just this evening, a talk by a British judge on the relationship between decisions by the European Court in Strasbourg and decisions by the British parliament and courts (that one was a tad dry).
Coming up next week is a lecture by an eminent visiting law professor from the Vermont Law School on "Our Energy Trilemma: Cost, Reliability and Environmental Effects." ta daa!

The End.

So that's all (or perhaps way too much) for now.

Next time:
Birds!
Lemonade Tree
Kayaking the mighty Waikato
More about the campus
Go see the new OZ movie in 3D

Ta for now!
--Loring and Michael, Monday 18 March and Tuesday 19 March (in NZ) 2013

Department of Corrections:

1. In an earlier issue of this publication, Waikato was mispronounced.

The correct pronunciation is Wy-CAT-oh.

2. And when referring to the river, it's not just "Waikato". One must say, "The Mighty Waikato". Or so it appears from everything in print that we've seen. One exception: Loring found a reference to "The Magnificent Waikato". So there.