New-Zealand

In 1996, I went to visit the North island of New-Zealand for a month. I stayed in and around Auckland, and also went to spend a few days in Rotorua, and in the Bay of islands.

Rotorua is well known for its abundance of volcanic activity. There are many thermal parks with active geysers, boiling water pools, bubbling mud pools, and in fact it's not at all unusual to see hot steam coming out from underneath the pavement, in people's gardens and so on. The whole town has a strong smell of sulphur, which one quickly gets used to.

I visited several of the parks in Rotorua, and due to my interest in native cultures, I went to experience two authentic Maori evenings in villages reconstructed to show how the Maori people lived a long time ago. Those evenings were the best part of my trip, and both included the famous "hangi", the Maori meal that is cooked in baskets in an Earth oven, steamed for hours from the hot steam coming from under the rocks.

On leaving Rotorua I made a one day trip to Kiwi Fruit Country in Te Puke, on the way back to Auckland. I never knew there were so many different kinds of kiwi fruits, nor had I even seen so many of them in my life.

I later went to the north part of the Island called the Bay of islands, and visited some of the nice little places there.

I hope you enjoy these few photos of my trip.