Today the weather report predicted rain starting before noon. So we decided to walk into Maketu, a 15 minute walk downhill. It turned out to be a warm morning! We read the plaques along the walk describing the history of Maketu. There are 2 historic churches, an Anglican church and a Roman Catholic church.

I don’t know which church this is, but I was impressed by the archway at the gate!

The intricacy of the carving is fantastic!

I’ve seen this architecture in front of buildings in the small towns we’ve been through, also on the building at Waitangi Treaty Grounds where I participated in the traditional welcome ceremony. It is part of the Marae or “meeting grounds that are the focal point of Maori communities”. We see signs for Marae in quite a few communities. They all look very well kept and respected. We continued around the tiny town center, past the kid’s playground where I saw something I’ve never seen in a playground before – a surfboard!

It’s on a spring, and boy, is it a challenge for an adult!

We picked up 2 meat pies at the convenience store to take home and heat up for lunch. Maketu is famous for their ‘Maketu Pies’. We’ve found these type of pies all over, and they are the best value! Think pot pies, but fresh, hot, with flaky pastry crusts, just the right amount of gravy and flavor! Eat them right out of the paper wrapping!

We bought these out of the refrigerator at the store because we had to walk uphill home! We heated them up in the oven for lunch and they were great!!

We waited for the rain to arrive, but it seemed to be stalled to the west of us. We took advantage of the sun we had to wash some clothes and put them on the line. Later I made dinner of leftover grilled fish in a cheese sauce, with lemon from their tree, over pasta. With a salad of greens including fresh spinach from our host’s garden and nasturtiums I gathered from the roadside on our walk back to our B&B.The rain finally arrived after a nondescript sunset!

We even had a brief display of lightening and some rolls of thunder!

We journeyed a little farther afield today, to Rotorua, about an hour’s drive south from our B&B. On the way we stopped where there was a congregation of parked cars, thinking it must be a great spot, and it was! Okere Falls Track, a trail along a string of waterfalls on the Kaituna river, we learned is New Zealand’s premier white water rafting destination. One falls along the river, Tutea falls, is the highest commercially rafted falls in the world at 7 meters (22 ft. 11 in.)!

Tutea Falls! A commercial raft with 6-8 people just barely fits down the falls! We didn’t see any rafters while we were there. Unfortunately the observation deck and the stairs down to the caves with glow worms was closed for repairs (to open the next day-6 Nov.!)

We hiked the track, about 5 miles total through a wonderful canopy of tree ferns along the river, catching glimpses of the river below us.

The track ends at Trout Pools, where trout are often seen. The water was so high from the recent rains that we didn’t see any fish in the turbulent ripples!

We returned on the ridge track, up and down, in more sun as we had views over the forest to the hillsides beyond, dotted with sheep. In the parking lot we saw one more place of interest, the start for the zipline tours! We headed over and went down the steep stairway to see the river rushing by, on it’s way to flow down the chute of Tutea Falls! We also saw some kayakers zooming by!

We continued our trip around the east edge of Lake Rotorua, into the town of Rotorua on the south shore of the lake. The smell of sulphur hot springs was in the air! We headed to Government Gardens and the viewpoint at Motutara Point overlooking the lake. It was quiet and fairly empty at the parking area. There is a paddlewheel boat drydocked at the point with a for sale sign on it. I googled it and found out the “Lakeland Queen has been indefinitely closed since October 2021 with the boat dry-docked at Sulphur Point. It’s not known when or if it will operate again.” Covid must have killed it. What a shame, a click on the boat’s name above gives a description of the cruise with lovely pictures.

There is a walking track along the lakefront with sculptures. The south east part of the lake is a bird sanctuary and there were lots of gulls, ducks and even black swans gliding on the water and resting on the small islands by shore. It’s also the geothermal area of the lake.

We drove the short way back to Government Gardens and walked around. The impressive building at the center of the gardens is unfortunately closed. It housed the Rotorua Museum until an earthquake in 2016 forced it’s closure. A plan is now in place to reinforce the structure and eventually reopen it.

Known as The Bath House, it was originally a health spa for bathing in the mineral rich hot water from Lake Rotorua.

What a roof line! Maori influence can be found in the intricately carved fascia above the windows.

There is a trail behind the building along Lake Rotorua’s geothermal section. There is lots of construction going on to upgrade the trail and the sections we could visit had such a strong vapor that my eyes were stinging and watering, as if I had chopped onions, although the smell was not offensive.We moved on to Kuirau Park nearby to walk around the geothermal areas, practically in the middle of town! They have a lovely ‘fragrance garden’, probably to try to counteract the sulphur smell from the bubbling fumaroles, hot springs, mud pots, etc. in the park!

This hot spring was clear and deep.

At the north end of the park is Kuirau Lake, a large steaming bubbling lake.

You can just see the walkway on the other side of the lake through the steam. One section of walkway was closed due to high water, the walkway was under a few inches of HOT water!

Throughout the park are fenced areas, they are all some kind of geothermal site!

They even have an area with two small concrete shallow pools with benches around them for communal foot soaking! We took advantage, with a dozen or so fellow foot soakers from all over the world from the accents we heard! We headed home after a wonderful day for dinner and another fabulous sunset!Later in the evening we heard distant explosions and looked out to see fireworks exploding down below us, probably from Maketu Beach. We could also see some fireworks way out towards Tauranga to the northwest! We heard and saw some fireworks last night too. What was going on? Google it! November 5, Guy Fawkes Day, a celebration of the arrest (and subsequent death by hanging, then being drawn and quartered!) of Guy Fawkes, a conspirator in the ‘Gunpowder Plot’ of Nov. 5, 1605 to blow up the Houses of Parliament to end the persecution of Catholics in Protestant England! His arrest foiled the plot and has become a reason to celebrate throughout the English colonies. An obviously abandoned celebration in the American colonies after the Revolution!

Saturday, 4 November, was a partly cloudy day, and even though it was the weekend we decided to venture through the town of Tauranga to the large lava dome we can see from our B&B. The lava dome is not Mt. Maunganui though! Mt. Maunganui is the name of the resort town, now a suburb of Tauranga. ‘The Mount’, known to the Maori as Mauao, is a popular hiking area with summit trails and a base trail that encircles it. We joined lots of other folks wanting to get outside after yesterday’s rain!

On Google maps Mauao is a blob of land at the end of a spit forming the entrance to Tauranga Harbour, a busy port that has international shipping traffic.

The map sign board was handy for our hike, but trying to distinguish the trails by their Maori names was difficult!

As we started our hike up we met part of the landscaping crew! Mauao was a prominent Maori Pa (fortified village) whose terraced summit was traditionally kept clear of forest so the residents could protect their stores of water (maybe a well) and taro and kumara (sweet potatoes), the staple foods of the Maori pre-European influence.

We could look down on Tauranga Harbour and the heavily forested Matakana Island fronting the harbour. Clearcuts are visible.

Looking back towards Tauranga (population of about 161,000) and the busy port. We saw a ship loaded with logs being escorted out of the harbour by tug boats.

As we reached the summit, we could see the windward side view, looking down on the town’s beach that stretches east to join Papamoa beach in the distance.

Being the windward side, paragliders take advantage! This guy was doing sweeping turns and dives down the cliffs!

We descended on the windward side and hiked around the base back to our starting point.

We got a real Oregon Coast vibe on the seaward side of the mountain!

We walked out to the beach for a look back at the mountain (and the finish line for a race finished or not yet begun?).

We finished our day with a great grilled lamb dinner and drinks looking over the meadow at sunset!

…Bring December Flowers! More rain today, steady, heavy downpours! No wonder it’s so green here, and flowers are everywhere. The pohutukawa trees have started blooming, and nasturtiums are growing like weeds along roadsides! We stayed inside today and worked on future plans.

Gray skies through rain speckled windows.

You can’t be too upset about the rain when you have a palm tree!

I used the time to make a few recipes. Thanks to our previous host we had avocados from her garden that were ripening quickly!

Perfectly ripe avo’s for guacamole!

Yummy!

We explored nearby areas today. Starting with the town that our accommodation sits above, Maketu. A town of under 1500 people (over 65% Maori) has a local, quiet, calm, non-touristy vibe. It sits between the Maketu estuary of the Kaituna river and Okurei Pt., the historic Maori Pa site overlooking the beach. Maketu is the historic landing site of the Arawa, one of the pioneer canoes of the Maori that left their homeland of “Hawaiki” between 800-1000 years ago, and landed in New Zealand or Aotearoa (loosely translated as ‘land of the long white cloud’) as they named it. The Te Arawa confederation of Maori iwi (tribes) and hapu (subtribes) living in the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty areas trace their ancestry from the people of this canoe.

The town is below the line of houses below us. The estuary is the water to the left of the sand spit, the ocean beach is to the right.

We drove down and parked at the only restaurant in town! We strolled the walkway into ‘town centre’ where they have a kids playground, a ‘freedom camping area’ (for self contained campers) and even an exercise area with sturdy simple exercise equipment!

The start of the beach in Maketu.

After checking out the only store in town, a tiny but surprisingly well stocked convenience store (or ‘Dairy’ as they are called here) we continued our tour of the area. We drove backroads for about 15 minutes to the Kaituna Scenic Wetlands Reserve, at the west end of the Maketu estuary, where the Kaituna river empties into the Bay of Plenty.

A fishing dock was built at the edge of the dunes where local families were congregated, camping, swimming, fishing and visiting.

On the right side of the dock kids were playing in the waves, supervised by vigilant parents!

On the left side of the dock the river current fought against the ocean tide, apparently a great spot to fish!

And in the parking area, a really nice toilet!