As a family, we planned to go to the very far north of the North Island, to a place called Cape Reinga. We were going to do an overnight camping excursion, because the Cape is about 5 hours from our house. The weather report for that night was a bit messy with lots of rain and gale force winds. Our tent was not going to be up to the challenge, so we decided to go to Rotorua instead. This turned out to be a great trip indeed.
On the way out there is this cliff side cemetery I always wanted to take pictures of and I had my chance.
Cliff Side Cemetery
One of the towns we went through is Cambridge, like the uni in England. It’s a lovely little town and if it weren’t raining I would have liked to spent more time there.
Te Koutu Domain entrance
Church in Cambridge
I wanted to go visit Hobbiton in Matamata and so we looked for the road right after Cambridge to find it. We went off of the main highway, which is Hwy 1 and used 1B. Somehow we missed the exit and didn’t find it. Much later on the trip we found another road that lead back to the tour, so we decided to give it a go. Once we got to Hobbiton is was raining pretty hard so we decided to do that on the way back. It was a good thing we did, as it was a two hour walk through dirt roads and steel hills. More on Hobbiton later.
We decided that we would do something on the way and decided to stop at the AgroDome. This is a tourist spot to come see a real working farm, but they also put on a pretty nice show. The guy running the stage show was pretty funny and I assume was pretty good at shearing sheep.
Getting ready to shear a sheep
Sheep getting shorn
Showing how to milk a cow
I loved how they were just sitting there
Merino, the star of the show
After the guy talked about the types of sheep, showed how to shear them, let people milk a cow and brought out some baby lambs to feed, it was time for the most interesting portion of the show. The herding dogs were very cool. There were two types of herding dogs. The first type was very quiet and just looked at and ran after the sheep to make sure they don’t get away. The guy actually demonstrated the dog using geese. The dog kept herding the geese wherever this guy wanted them. He used spoken and whistled commands.
Herding dog
The second type of dog is the loud barking kind. Almost like bloodhound style barking. They were cool as well. They actually run on top of the sheep. No joke.
Running on the sheep
All three laying on the sheep
Lounging dog
After that everyone got to come up on stage and take pictures with the sheep. Kelsey wanted to go up and Marty went up, but I think he is a bit like me and doesn’t like crowds, so he went back down and stood off to the side.
Madhouse
Romney sheep
Kelsey with the black sheep of the show...
After this, we got to go to the nursery and play with the baby animals.
Another black sheep... hmmm...
Lambs
Herding puppy
Marty really didn’t want to mess with the animals the first day we went, but he actually got in there with them the second time. Will show pictures of that shortly. You are actually not supposed to pick up the puppies, but one of the employees told Kelsey it was ok.
Outside there was a demo of the dogs actually herding the sheep in the field. We missed part of this because the kids wanted to be in with the baby animals. Here is the bit I got.
Herding dog at work with Marty in foreground
There were other buildings in this area that showed how wool is processed and also a store with wool items.
Wool machine
Spinning wool
Da, in Soviet Russia, hat wear you.
Looks like it would be trouble walking...
What we didn’t realize is that there was an entire section of the attraction that we didn’t do on the first day. This was the farm tour. Since it was raining that first day we decided to come back the next day and do it then. More pictures about that later.
Once we got through at the AgroDome, we decided to go get our hotel room there in Rotorua. We got distracted on the way there, with driving around. We found some cool stuff. First was this…
Rotorua Museum
We decided to drive around a bit and see what else was there.
Cottage on the grounds of the museum
monument
Just past the Rotorua museum was a convention center and then a lake. Around the lake was volcanic bubbling pools of mud. There were signs all over the place about staying on the board walk and not walking in this area, but people were out there. Marty wanted to go over where all the people were and I said no, you aren’t allowed, it’s dangerous. He said why are those people doing it. I said, “Cause they are stupid” We heard that the very next day someone’s kid fell into one of those pools and died as a result. Read the signs people, they are there for your safety.
Volcanic lake
More at the lake
At a park by the lake (where you are allowed to walk)
Communal toilet I guess
People used to bathe in some of the pools, before they built that fancy building that was turned into a museum. Previously, this building was set up as a health facility, where people were given “the cure”, which included hot mud baths and setting in the sulfur water. Here is one of the pools called the coffee pot I believe.
Coffee Pot
All the signs talk about how people died in these pools, some were overcome with the heat, some were made loopy by the gases and just drowned. I think I will stick to the shower.
After we read some of the signs we decided to go to the museum and look around. Unlike the Domain in Auckland, this museum cost lots of money to go into. Tourist, it’s expensive to come here and do stuff.
I am going to close with lots of pictures of the museum. My next post will be about the next day in Rotorua. Too much stuff in one day and with our internet connection it takes forever to upload the images.
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