We had an offshore excursion in Tauranga today – we lagged in booking our excursions so we didn’t get our first choice. Learn from our mistakes, if you want to do excursions on a cruise, book them well before the cruise ship leaves. Alas, we still had a pretty good day and learned a bit about the native culture of New Zealand, along with some info about sheep.
Steven with his new friend:
The guy is shaving the poor sheep for her fur – they are paid by the sheep, not by the hour, and she did not look happy. It was a pretty cheesy comedy routine, but did make us giggle outloud a few times.
After the sheep shaving demonstration, we had a buffet lunch and watched a native Maori ritual song and dance routine. Then back in the bus which had only partially working A/C. Next stop was the Te Puia Thermal Reserves where we saw an impressive geyser. The geyser was similar to our Old Faithful at Yellowstone but lasted for almost 20 minutes and occurred every hour. The smell was…interesting.
park also had some bubbling mud pits:
Our park visit ended with a wood carving demonstration – these guys spend 3 years at this “school” perfecting their craft. To be accepted into the school, one must be of Maori decent.
The end result is pretty impressive with quite a bit of detail - the 2nd picture is only halfway finished.
We came across a kiwi farm on the way back to the ship - New Zealand is known for its kiwi fruit and we saw some farms along the side of the road. The plants look similar to grape vines except that the vines grow along vertically suspended wires.
4 comments:
yum! kiwi.
Sheep and sulfur! Yay!
mmmm, kiwi!
How cool is that? The kiwi farm, not the sulfur.
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