Day 14 church, maori village and geo thermal pools, night time redwoods canopy walk

Sunday Jan 14 by Karen
I couldn't have got a shorter journey to mass; I literally crossed the road and walked through the doors. St Mary's is a big church, very open and in a semi circular design. Big hall and greeting space too. Whoever was in charge of the projectors and music was probably away on holiday as there was an announcement that there would be no music. The congregation wasn't having that though. Someone started a hymn off and everyone stumbled through the verses and more enthusiastically sang the chorus while the priests and servers processed in. The greeting and first few sentences were in Maori before the mass proper started. I learnt at the Maori village later that day that to reconcile Christianity and the Maori beliefs the church leader, no matter what denomination  it is, will start in Maori and refer to their belief system to do with nature and respecting it before following on with the service.

Afterwards one of the congregation came up and said, "I know I should have been praying but when I saw your skirt at communion I just thought it was lovely". Nice to be complimented on clothes but also slightly concerned at being a distraction.......

Church done we headed out to the Maori thermal village at Te Puia for a guided tour by one of the elders around the village followed by an independent walk around the bubbling, steaming hot pools surrounding the village. Everyone is warned to stick to the paths and not to wander off. The ground is very active and it is very possible to end up on an unstable piece of ground and literally in hot water.

The communal bathing pools, piping hot fed by the cooking pool

.No indoor baths here, everyone uses these apparently

Steaming, bubbling pools like this were in the heart of the village

Bubbling mud

Hot hot lake surrounded by manuka (tea tree) plants. This is the plant the maths department gave me when I left.

There are two well known geysers at this village that spout 4 to 6 times a day. The smaller Prince of Feathers was playing away happily but the big one  was having  none of it. It gave us chance to swap travelling stories with an Irish/Scottish couple who recommended  the redwoods night walk and we told them about Kerosene creek where we planned to go the next day.

The house next to this is now empty due to this steaming hole that opened up next to it. Other houses had been demolished where holes opened up directly underneath them.

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Cooking pool for veggies

Our guide in red

Smaller prince of feathers geyser

Pools were so clear, but very very hot generally around 100 deg mark

taking a walk 

So now we wanted to try out our own pool at our Airbnb. By turning a lever, steam from the pipe connected to the geo thermal system and filled our pool with minerally goodness.

And it was lovely and warm. We could forgive the slightly crumbly edges of the pool, it's been there a while.

 For our next activity we needed to wait for sunset. The redwoods canopy twilight tour is on from dusk until 11 pm. This is held on forestry commission land and was an enchanting walk on 23 rope bridges between 6 and 12 metres up in the trees. Plaques on the platforms explained and educated about the trees and what the commission is trying to do, while lights illuminate and make the forest magical.

Starting point, stairs to first platform

Some platforms had lights around them

Lights in the forest changed between green, blue and red

Plaques explaining and informing

Maths in real life. Bit of trig anyone?

More maths!

Why trees are good to have around us

Handsome husband:-)

We had to queue to get on to the walk, it is a popular activity but once on we could take our time and enjoy the views, it was very late by the time we finished. There is a small gift shop next to the walk which had some beautiful handmade jewellery in that I really liked, I needed to check it matched with the skirt I wanted to wear it with. I have learnt the hard way in the past that I have not got an eye for colour. We needed to come back.