Day 13 kiwis, keas and kakas, then on to Rotorua

Sat Jan 13.by Karen
Our overnight stop at Otorohanga, only booked because we needed somewhere to stay last minute to enable us to do the caving we wanted to, was an unexpected delight.
The airbnb we found was the cheapest stop yet but included the whole of the downstairs of the house which used to be the garages. We had a bedroom area complete with sofas, TV playstation, dvds, table and chairs and in the next room table tennis, weights, Foosball table, dryer, fridge freezer, separate bathroom, sink, sound system, microwave and crockery, plates, toaster etc. Breakfast had been left for us and we had full access to the pool and hot tub outside as well.
Sadly we made little use of most of it. But because we had arrived here, we visited the Kiwi Experience which has a nocturnal kiwi house, got to see Keas and Kakas (which were a delight) and fed parakeets from our hands.

Some of the many geckos

The kiwis are nocturnal and no photography was allowed but we watched them run about and feed for about half an hour. They look quite funny without any wings or tail feathers.

Keas

Kakas are very dextrous, took lids off containers and ate grated cheese from their claws 

Keas show bright feathers when in flight

This fellow wandered right next to us

hand feeding parakeets

This Kea only wanted the banana and was quite ruthless about throwing everything else out of the bowl so he could get it.

We also saw tuatara out basking in the warmth.

We had a picnic lunch in the park next door and then went onto the long main street to pick up a souvenir kiwi I'd spotted when we came through here two days ago. We got side tracked again by the 24 different displays on main street detailing some of New Zealands past, everything from rugby to marmite, womens rights to cheese. Finally we had to have a pic with one of the giant kiwis that grace each side of town.

giant Kiwi statues at both ends of town

displays of kiwiana all through town

Rotorua was just under a two hour drive away where we had another airbnb booked for three nights. This had 4 bedrooms and a hot mineral bath outside. You can certainly smell Rotorua. The sulphurous smell eddies around the town, sometimes highly noticeable and others not at all. Our bnb had vanilla scented oil perfumes plugged into each room and while pleasant, I had to switch them all off within a day, they were giving me a headache.

The house is 100 years old and owned by one of the Mitai family, a Maori family who offered us a discount for their (recommended by our guide book) hangi which was a nice bonus.

We headed for the local countdown for essentials, ate in, blogged (as we were several days behind) and sorted out some accomodation for when we left here while we took advantage of the washing machine in the outhouse. Our clothes dried really well because the steam pipes from the geothermal source run through it keeping it nice and warm.