Hot Bubbling Whamily Whun

Sessions on how to make a scary face

I’m gonna make this post a quick one. I’m short of time. Those motivational videos which my lovely missus keeps listening to, say that all successful people count their time in minutes, not hours, days or weeks. (Or in my case, months…) Never too old to start being effective. So here goes the post.

Since, we’re on family visits and cousins (see last post), here’s a family visit on the other side of the world – New Zealand.

This was the time we visited a real ‘living Maori village’ (as if there’re actually dead villages to visit). …But, a ‘dead village’, would just have been as interesting, if we’re into spooks and spirits, ain’t it?

This village is called… wait for it… Whakarewarewa! In NZ, in words of Maori origin, the ‘WH’ consonant cluster is pronounced ‘F’ for some reason or other. So, Whakarewarewa, would be pronounced Fakarewarewa or Waka village for short (no, not Faka, just for this particular case. Just imagine how Faka would sound like? Of course, there’re exceptions! You wouldn’t want to be a friggin Faka, would you?)

But why then, would the people who first transcribed Maori into the English alphabet use ‘WH’ for ‘F’? It turned out that the original sound wasn’t really like an ‘f’ as in English but something close to an airy ‘w’ like how the Japanese would say Mt ‘Wh’uji (for Mount Fuji). Well, that’s what I read somewhere. Nuff with that, continuing with the picture post…


Whakarewarewa Village performance of Maori dances, like the war dance, Haka where you can have fun making scary faces. (Heck, I don't even need to try, especially on a grumpy day...)


Cousins in New Zealand – Jared and Skye. “I can’t climb up mommy!” Behind is the Te Puia Park that has loads of geysers including the Pohutu Geyser (no, not the friggin home water heaters which Indians called geysers)


“There you go!” Skye and mommy (today happens to be Skye’s 6th birthday, wow, time sure flies – by the way, Skye & Jared are currently having a holiday at their grandparents' place in Germany!)




Hot springs and steaming pools are a common feature of the village area. No, I don’t think you can swim in that… unless you wanna boil off your erm... precious parts


See what I mean? The villagers use the geothermal vents for cooking. They actually also use them for hot baths (there’re special bathing pools), and for heating up their houses in winter!


Now, that’s something you can swim in… A stream at the entrance to the village


Entrance arch to the village (& World War memorial)


The village’s community hall (and here’s a pic of Jayden & Skye in front of the community hall)


A village house with a nice garden, Whakarewarewa, Rotorua, NZ


Inside the village church


Heck, what’s this? Doll house? Spirit house??! Let’s get outta here…


Oh, here’s something not from Whakarewarewa, but from the nearby Kuirau Park in Rotorua, which I missed out in my earlier Rotorua post. It’s a hot bubbling mud pool! The whole place is a geothermal ummm… “mess”