Dave and I had to change rooms this morning because the room we had last night was reserved, and we were moved to an even nicer room. The rooms have been terrific all along.
Freda and Shirlee have made most of the reservations and all the rooms have had kitchenettes so we can prepare our own breakfast in the morning. Most of the rooms have not had AC though, nor do they have screens on the windows. So we open the windows and commune with nature.
The rest of the group was going to see the Orakei Korako Cave and Thermal Park which sounded fascinating but a little too strenuous for us, so we took a cruise on an old steam boat out to see some Maori carvings. The carving was on the wall of a cliff....a 30 foot tall representation of a full face tattoo, with every line having a special meaning. The tattoos make the Maori warriors look very fierce, and even the women had tattooed chins. This practice was discontinued many years ago, but I did see an elderly woman in the supermarket with a chin tattoo. Also on the cruise we saw Rod Stewart's summer home high on a hill overlooking the lake.
After the cruise we went to the Taupo Museum mainly to see the Ora Garden of Wellbeing, a garden that won the Chelsea Flower Show in 2004. It was small but had over 1000 native plants. And who do you think we ran into at the museum? The Gotterbarns and Goodwins were sitting in front of a TV "watching a DVD" (actually having a little nap). They exited and we took their places and had our own little nap. Then we went out to the rose garden....just so beautiful! Later we all went out for pub food and even at that little pub the food was incredible!
Tomorrow we leave for Napier, a town that was totally destroyed in the 1930's and then rebuilt in the style of the day...Art Deco.
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