Largest Corrugated Dog & Sheep Buildings in the World

   (there are others?)

Our next destination on the North Island is supposed to be the Waitomo Glow-worm Caves.  These caves, named for the Maori words for water and hole  (wai  and tomo) have not just the usual stalactites, stalagmites etc., but colonies of glow worms that create a unique sight.  

Image from http://www.xperienz.co.nz/

Unfortunately, as we try to find the Glow Worm Caves we learn that NZ road signage is scarce.  The above image is from a NZ web site.  Please remember my blog is based on my journals. This trip was a few years ago, but we didn’t have the advantage of a GPS or smartphone.  So we drive, we back-track, drive some more, back-track,  and finally decide to go on to Auckland. 

It’s a three-hour drive;  fortunately, the views are lovely--  rolling hills, lush greenery,  and the almost omnipresent fluffy clouds.  These are captivating reminders of  the volcanic origins of this land and the inspiration for its Maori name.

Rolling Hills of the North Island

We take a break in Oxford (or Tirau, in Maori) at the largest corrugated iron Sheep and Sheepdog buildings in the world.   My first thought is,  ‘There are other corrugated sheep buildings?’ 

Visitor Information Centre of Tirau

In addition to being unique structures, these buildings highlight the importance of sheep farming in New Zealand.  I’m sure there are differences of opinion, but I have often heard that New Zealand lamb is the absolute best.  Any lamb lovers care to comment?

The largest corrugated sheep  building in the world is a wool and craft shop.

Onward to Auckland, with some scenic reminders of the importance of sheep to the local economy.

I doze off before we get to the city, and Kate is left not only doing all the driving, but doing it with no one to talk to.  Once again she gets us to our destination without a problem and we’re in for the night.

We start our last day on the North Island with a bus tour of Auckland.  Tours like this are ideal for an overview that can help you decide where you want to spend the most time.  In our case, it's ideal because we have one day.  One advantage of this excursion is that we can get  off at various points throughout the tour, and board another tour coach when we're done exploring a chosen point.

I’m struck by the harbor view...the water, the land and, again, ‘the long white cloud’.  Every time I see that view I am reminded of that name, Aotearoa, bestowed by the first arrivals.  

Auckland Harbor

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But there is more to see than the harbor....

Next: Auckland Museum and Sky Tower

Hell's Gate

Hell’s Gate

We begin the day with a visit to Hell.  Well, to Hell’s Gate, another Maori-run site.  Hell’s Gate gets its name from George Bernard Shaw, who felt the smell and appearance of the phenomena before him --the odor of sulfur; geysers erupting;  huge pools of malodorous steaming water;  mud volcanos, ink-pots (mud pots), and strange rock configurations--could only be the entrance to hell.    

What follows  is a simplified geology lesson (that I've presented in previous blogs and posts) to help understand how this strange place came to be.  The top earth layer (any where from feet to miles) of dirt and rock covers ‘broken plates’ of rock that are always moving. These tectonic plates ceaselessly rub against or over each other.  Over millions of years, this changes the shape of continents, creates mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, geysers, mudpots, and more.  And a great many of these  circle the Pacific in a ‘Ring of Fire’.     

If you want more info please let me know in a comment or email.  I never tire of talking about it but I have a feeling some may tire of reading about it. :)

The Maori have taken great care to create a site that is fascinating and safe for tourists and the environment.  There are boardwalks and carefully delineated paths that navigate the pools and pots, keeping people at a safe distance while allowing maximum exposure.  

Boardwalks, marked trails, and warning signs

There are also warnings making it quite clear that this is not a a giant ashtray or dump site.

The friction of plates rubbing against each other can create debris; sediment builds on the crack between the plates. The ‘blockage’ on the crack allows pressure to mount beneath it, and the steaming, stinking gas, water, and sand burble up from the depths of the earth. That’s a mud volcano: basically a  pressure valves in the earth's crust that can range from a knee-high mound to a mountain.

Kate presents a mud volcano

Geysers, like Old Faithful in Yellowstone or the one below in Hell’s Gate, remind us that we’re not ‘in charge’.  I could keep on going with words but this is a place better suited to a photo essay than a lot of verbiage. 

Hell’s Gate Geyser

Steaming sulfurous pools

Boiling Mud Pot

Geyser erupting from a sulfurous pool

Steamy Rocks, sulfurous pool at Hell’s Gate

mudpot

In spite of the ‘inhospitable’ environment of sulfurous geothermal phenomena, as we walk through Hells Gate we have a chance to go through shady cool woods growing right next to the barren sulfurous pools. I spot a fantail, and actually get a picture (much to my own surprise).

             

One of the things that strikes me (returning to an earlier photo) is the varied landscape here.

Rolling green hills in the background;  above the hills, the long white cloud characteristic of New Zealand; and in the foreground, elements from deep inside the earth bubbling to the surface, creating volcanoes, boiling mud, geysers, reshaping the island even as we walk.

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Last Place on Earth; Birds the Size of a House

New Zealand is a fairly isolated group of islands (with the North and South being the largest) 1,200 miles from Australia. Because of its isolation, many believe that this was one of the last places to be populated by humans. 

According to legend, the first human arrival came from Hawaiki or Hawaikiki in a canoe kind of like this one....

Boat typical of those in the 'Great Fleet'

....looked at the long white cloud cover of the land and called it Aotearoa (which means ‘long white cloud’).

Long White Cloud

Legend continues that a ‘great fleet’ of canoes brought many Polynesians about 1,000 years ago (give a take a hundred).   The story of the first human here and of the Great Fleet coming from Hawaiki has been part of oral tradition for as long as the Maori can remember.  Historical and anthropological studies support the later arrival date and reveal similarities between Maori and Polynesian cultures that back up the stories passed down over generations.

The first humans found NO land mammals on the islands.  None.   There were birds, there were insects,  and maybe some bats to eat the insects, some water mammals, but no land mammals.  I find that almost impossible to imagine.  No mammals at all?

Not only that, but we also  hear that before the Europeans arrived,  the North island was home to a giant flying eagle-like bird with a 29 foot wing span.  A bird that size would cover house and could pick up humans the way hawks pick up mice.  

There really isn't any evidence to corroborate that giant-flying-predator story (fortunately for the original settlers).  There were varying sizes of  *flightless* birds like the kiwi, and many called moa whose remains suggest they were related to emus and kiwi.  Some of the bones found indicate that a giant moa could stand 6 feet tall and weigh 500 pounds (yes, 500)--so we can see where the original giant-predator myth may have begun.  But this big bird couldn’t descend from the sky and grab me--I mean the Maori-- in its claws.

The considerably smaller national bird, the kiwi, is protected by law so it is not a food source. A funny little nocturnal guy, the kiwi has nostrils at the end of his beak.  When they dig in the sand for insects, kiwis often withdraw their beaks and sneeze. And in case you're wondering why the fruit and the bird bear the same name, just check the bird's body compared to the tasty fruit pictured below.

Kiwi--the bird * (above) and the fruit (below)

The Maori hunted the moa, using feathers and skin for clothing and meat for food, and bones for weapons and jewelry.  The sea was the other main source of sustenance. The Maori would smoke and/or dry sea food to assure an available supply when rough weather made fishing difficult.

Above you see a food storage hut (probably a little more elaborate in carving than the original huts) and drying racks for fish.  I remember seeing similar elevated food storage huts in Alaska, but there I knew the purpose was to keep food from conniving mammals.  Since there were no land mammals in NZ when the Maori arrived, I wonder if this type of storage is a holdover from the land that the first arrivals left behind?  Anyone have any ideas or information?

We end our day at Te Puia with a traditional ‘hangi’ feast.  The Maori dig a pit into which they place rocks which, when heated, cook the food.  Our dinner is accompanied by another traditional performance.  I'm no longer quite as frightened by the haka as I was this morning... but it's still impressively intimidating

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* (Now that you’ve seen the bird, I am willing to show you the carving that I made when I tried my hand at one of the Maori arts.....

 beginners carving  (it looks a little like a kiwi, doesn’t it?  

Next-- Hell’s Gate.