Whakarewarewa & Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland

Today’s ride was a quite short one, with short distances driven back and forth around Rotoura.

First we hit to the central Rotoura to drink a coffee and enjoy something to eat. The state of mind was shaky due to the rainy weather; first day of rain since we arrived in New Zealand, and not the last one!

Sipping from the warm coffee we decided to first head to Whakarewarewa Maori Village. It is at only four km away from Rotoura and we wanted anyhow to visit some Maori villages. The ticket we bought from the iVisitor in Rotoura; if you buy it from there you get a discount of 5 NZD per ticket; with these money saved we paid out coffee ;-)!

Then we headed to the park through the light rain. Rotoura smelt like rotten eggs since we arrived, and the closer we came to the village, the strong the smell was! There is no need to look around you, trying to figure out the reason; it smells this way because of the sulfate; and the closer one came to the Whakarewarewa village, the more will “enjoy” this smell. This is because there are also some geysers apart from the Maori culture. We missed the eventual eruption of any of the geysers, but we saw them and listen to the Maori stories told by our Maori guide. However, by far the most exciting experience was participating to the Maori program. There were sang local songs and danced haka. To my excitement I took part -together with other men from the audience- to the haka dance on the stage. Moreover, anyone had the chance to take pictures with the members of the Maori group.

The Maori show was the last ting we did in Whakarewarewa village. From there we headed to the geysers from Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. Rain again! Not very strong rain but annoying! At the park the rain was very light, however it had an sort of negative influence over the visit, because it affected the view of the beautiful and colorful geysers. No eruption here either; the only one happening here take place at 10:15 everyday; so we missed it. However, the walk around the geysers was exciting. It allowed us to see different and strange geysers with many colours and shapes. The last one we visited was the one that impressed us the most; it is called Devils Bath and it has a great green colour; it is breathtaking, and it is an attraction in itself. The park has also a big diversity of products, and the prices are not bigger than the ones down in town.

Once we finished we had a frugal lunch at the cafe inside the souvenir shop, and then we left the place for Taupo. On the way there we stopped to see the Huka Falls. Amazing place as well, and very close to central Taupo.

The falls was the last touristic thing we did; the rain got stronger and didn’t let us visit much. Tomorrow the weather is expected to be more or less the same, but no matter what we will find something to do; beside we will hit to Napier.

I’ll be back tomorrow ;-)!

Home at The Hobbit!

I’ve just visited The Hobbit….huuuuuura! Well, he wasn’t home but I still enjoyed to be around his domain!

Everything starts down the hill, in Matamata village at the Information visitor center, a building that looks like a hobbit one, but bigger :-)! There we boarded the Hobbiton tour bus, with the tickets we bought online. The bus was half empty, but who cared; the views on the way up to the Hobbit Movie Set were breathtaking, and supported by the info from the driver.

First stop: the Movie Set Souvenirs area. There we picked up our guide, and without getting off the bus we drove further to the Movie Set. On the way sheep and beautiful scenery; I love it!

With such natural beauty to drive by, the time is flying! When we arrived at the desired places, the guide took over! Our guide’s name was Jessica, and she us very entertaining and well prepared despite her very young age. Generally the tour offered enough info about the place, movie and back stage; all these combined with “breaks” for picture sessions. However, sometimes taking pictures was a changing activity due to the high number of visitors willing to take pictures as well!

We had the right and the chance to visit only one house: Hobbit’s one. Different than in the movie, but I let you explore it live…

Then, after more pictures, we were offered a New Zealandish beer for free; it was perfect after an circa two hours tour.

Then we packed our memories and our ocular pictures and boarded again the bus; this time to the way back in Matamata. However, there is a 15 minutes stop at the souvenir place, so everyone can have an extra memory!

This was for today; tomorrow we hit the road to Rotorua and Taupo! Lets see what we can do there!

In love with an alien!

I came in Denmark exactly three years ago! It was a decision I made pushed by the desire to experience the educational system in one of the civilized countries on this planet. Nothing more; just study! This was in my mind when I got here.

I had to say that before the autumn of that year, 2012, I visited Denmark for one week only in 2010; but, you know how it is when you visit a place for the first time, it’s all about holiday: relax, fun, easy-going etc., nothing serious, no hard feelings, and all these because you know you will be there for only a limited period of time. But the situation may change slightly when it comes to moving to a foreign country for a longer time; changes which help you speed up the process of getting integrated in the country’s culture, and to discover the country better; at least this is my story; a love story with a cold partner; a love story with all it’s ingredients; with fantastic moments, but with hard times as well.

However, even if I would like to, I won’t be able to put on paper all the aspects of my “relation” with Denmark; not even all the most important. Therefore I will just mention here some random aspects that struck me so hard that I can easy remember them now.

One of them was the weather. I am coming originally from a country with four seasons, from which a very hot one called summer. When I got here, in September, in my country the temperature was around 28 degrees; but in the same day a bit north, the temperature was 18, beside the wind which was blowing everywhere and everything, and made me wear cloths that in my country I would usually wear in the late autumn. The worst thing about my relationship with the Danish weather, is that since that moment I have been trying to get use with the temperatures, which make it looks like there are only to seasons here: autumn/winter (from August til June) and spring (in July, when the temperature goes up to 25 degree). This may make it easy for anyone to realise that now a jacket is as important to me as socks or underwear; I wear it almost year round here in Denmark.

Another thing about Denmark, that created turbulence during my stay here, is the Danish language; it is amazingly difficult to learn it, especially if you have other activities around it (like school and a full-time job, in my case). Of course, it is admirable that in Denmark are institutions, in every district, where you are taught Danish for free, from the beginner level to the level which is mandatory for  receiving the permanent residency in Denmark, or even to the level where, after finishing it, you can study, at a university level, programs taught in Danish; and again all these for free. Yet, to get these opportunity is for everybody, but to get to speak Danish language it is not (or not so easy and so soon). The most annoying thing about the Danish language and it place in one’s experience with Denmark, is that without it is very hard to do many things, like getting a job, friends etc.

Because I just mentioned for a couple of times about working in Denmark, I have to say that from this point of view, Denmark is a wonderful country; because there are jobs for everyone, and also guidance/help to get one; there are not jobs only for the ones who don’t want to work. In my case, I could find a job very soon after my arrival in Denmark; so, at the middle of September, at not even two weeks since I arrived in Denmark, I got a job. Of course I wanted to get a job, because I came in Denmark with money to be enough for only a couple of months, so from this perspective it didn’t even matter what kind of job it was; only to get paid. So, I got a full-time job as a cleaning assistant, in a hotel, and in order to be able to attend classes at my school, I had to take only the night shifts; so night at work, day at school, evening Danish classes (only two times a week). What was good about this job, it’s that it allowed me to go to school; it wasn’t addressed only to Danish speaking persons, and the salary was good enough to cover the monthly expenses for two persons. And here I come to the point where I release the fruit of love in my relationship with Denmark: it offers me money, I give “her” hard work, time and patience! I hope, in this way our relationship will be a long and healthy one.