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Saturday 25 February 2012

The Gadding continues

Down at ground level, the navigator didn't inspire a lot of confidence, it looked like east.  



Our journey took us past the great lake Taupo on our way back east - and this time the sky 
cleared to reveal the glittering Mount Ruhapehu  that we had just descended that morning.


 to the steaming beating heart of the North Island - Rotorua


Welcomed to Rotorau in a carved and woven Marae by traditional Maori song and dance.



Prabhash enthralled by the Maori concert


A golden note during the Maori welcome 



An Ancestor cuddling descendants near the Marae



A slightly less gentle face carved into the great gate of the compound



A tragic mother figure guards the nearby sculpture school



A work in progress from a single block of  beautiuful Kauri wood



A short walk from the sculpture school brought us to the famous Pohutu geyser
and after a short wait it presented one of its twenty daily eruptions of steam



Another attraction near Rotorua is the Agrodome - a large farm where visitorscan meet a variety of animals up close

not only the expected cows and sheep but alpacas and llamas 



and spectacular deer


totally unexpected ostriches



 and a giant sheep dog


the beginning of a kiwi fruit.

So with memories of sheep hand wrought in corrugated roofing iron

and a giant dairy cow guarding an even gianter Fontera milk factory



 it's on the road home to Auckland in time for Christmas.












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