The food basket used for Ngararatuatara cooking is made from flax fiber. The green outer layer of the long hardy strands of the plant are sheared off, by hand, using the sharp edge of large mussel shells. (Pic: Te Puia)
- The food basket used for Ngararatuatara cooking is made from flax fiber. The green outer layer of the long hardy strands of the plant are sheared off, by hand, using the sharp edge of large mussel shells. (Pic: Te Puia)
- Lunch of green-lipped mussels, shrimp, corn, and traditional Maori bread and dips, at Te Puia.
- Te Puia CEO Te Taru White, right, explained Maori cooking traditions.
- The kiwi bird. It's endangered. They are nocturnal. Te Puia has a kiwi enclosure. Nighttime conditions are maintained, but we didn't spot one. (Pic: Te Puia)
- Maori warriors ready to perform a cultural dance. (Pic: Te Puia)
- A Zorb rolls down the hill. There is a person inside. Another waits to take off from the top of the hill. This is one I'd do again.
- When a pair Zorb together (yes, two can fit), they put you on a straight path down the hill. Zorb alone and you get the winding path. I believe the author is in this Zorb (alone and winding).
- And the author survives the Zorb.
- The Shweeb with the author, front, partnered with Air New Zealand PR Sarah Miller Reeves. Ready for take-off. This one you pedal and raise a pulse and a sweat. You race three circuits. Lucky it was not four or my partner and I would have been lapped by the other team.
- A Merino ram on the roadside between Agroventures and the home of Zorb. A municipal bus driver picked me up and gave me a ride to the home of Ram. I found New Zealanders a pretty friendly bunch.
- Santa Monica writer Terry Gardner, Tourism New Zealand's Gabe Boyd and the author get spliced for the Swoop.
- The trio get lifted high into the air by a crane-like apparatus.
- Someone rips the cord and we're off.
- Off in more ways that one.
- And another shot showing just how off we were.
- Santa Monica writer Terry Gardner and the author kitted out to "fly" on the Freefall Xtreme.
- The author is here somewhere being kept aloft by gale force winds from below. If this is what flying feels like, you can keep it. Give me wings and let me glide, rather. Or catch a wave in the ocean.
- Geese come a-waddling at Agroventures, which has a bunch of animals dotted around. This I suspect is what puts the 'agro' in Agroventures.
- Rotorua's Polynesian Spa, right on the edge of the lake, is the place you go for a hot mineral bath. They have great views and also spa treatments. We went at night so missed the views. (Photo: Polynesian Spa)
- The pools range from hot to hotter and there are private ones as well as those you share. As I say, we went at night so missed this view but like Rotorua, it was somewhere I felt I'd like to return. (Photo: Polynesian Spa)
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