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.
