Dan Ger!

Another highlight of the trip with my parents was a 4 wheel-drive day-trip around the northern city of Rotorua with a Maori guide, Roger Tekiri. Rotorua is a volcanic area known for its hot springs and exotic geological formations. It also has a large Maori population, largely from the Te Awara iwi (tribe), which has been a success story in developing cultural tourism.

The first thing you notice about Rotorua when you get off the plane is that it smells. The sulphur from the thermal springs gives the whole area an odor of rotten eggs. But you get used to it. It was pouring rain in the morning when Roger picked us up. He first took us to his marae and meeting house at Ohinemutu– the most elaborate and beautifully carved I have seen so far. He told us stories about his ancestors, and particularly his grandfather, Colonel Awatere, who was one of the heroes and fiercest fighters of the Maori battalion that fought in World War II. Apparently the Colonel wanted to eat Hitler’s brain as a sign of ultimate conquest, but didn’t get to Berlin in time. Roger turned out to be a real character, he talked nearly non-stop the entire trip about everything under the sun, and cracking jokes along the way.

We spent the morning visiting off-the-beaten path geological sites, including thermal pools of boiling mud and water and an arsenic lake. It was beautiful – but eerie and unsettling. The ground seemed unstable. Rotorua has regular earthquakes, and it felt like the earth was bubbling and rumbling beneath us. At the same time the downpour continued with thunder and lightning. We changed into bathing suits and had morning tea sitting in a wonderfully warm thermal river in the rain.

The weather eventually cleared in time for us to drive up to the highest peak overlooking the volcanic valley full of cinder cones – small hills of volcanic ash. Then the 4-WD part of the tour started. Roger pulled off the gravel road and barreled the car through the bush (kiwi for forest). A couple of times he pointed to signs that said something like – “Danger: Do Not Enter.” Roger told us “I don’t know who this German guy is: Dan Ger. If they wanted me to stay out they would have written ‘Ro-Ger’.” Ha ha. Because of the storms sections of the roads were completely washed out, so we’d stop, Roger would jump out of the car with a shovel and fill in the biggest holes – although looking at it I still couldn’t imagine that we’d get through.

At lunchtime he pulled off the “road," led us down a path, and instructed us to “wait here.” After about 10 min (which felt much longer!), I started to wonder if he had taken off and left us in the middle of nowhere, but the car was still there. Finally he called for us. We walked further down the trail to find him cooking chicken and hashbrowns in a very civilized hut that he had built and hidden in the forest. Everything tasted great, and the views were terrific.

After lunch we headed for Tarawera Falls. Again, we walked through the bush – no path or trail in sight, until we got to the top of the first part of the falls. As we were looking down on the rushing water, Roger explained that we were going to go down to the bottom, he’d put us on a rock in front of the falls, take our picture and then we’d walk out to the lower falls. When I asked how that was going to happen he said “I’ll jump first…” Yeah right. But somehow we made it. He had nailed a rope along the rocks on the side of the falls, so you could slide down. At the bottom, while we were waiting on some rocks wondering how we would get to the other side of the raging river, Roger says, “wait here.” He reappeared soon afterwards in his speedo and sneakers and proceeded to piggy-back us one by one across the river for the photo op. It was hilarious. Photos to come later.

The rest of the falls were gorgeous – the upper falls disappear into the rocks as an underground river and then come out lower down. All in all a very memorable day.



Arsenic lake outside Rotorua. There were actually ducks swimming around in it.