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High on Rotorua’s list of prime attractions are its many beautiful lakes. And high on that list of lakes are Tikitapu, the Blue Lake and Rotokakahi, the Green Lake.
Rotokakihi
The two sit side by side in the steep, bush-clad hills, just a short drive from down town Rotorua. From a high point between them you can look from one to the other and see the contrast in colours that prompted early Pakeha to re-name them the Blue and the Green lakes.
Tikitapu
The contrast lies not only in their colours. Tikitapu, the Blue Lake is a playground. With its ramps, waterslide, pumice beaches and grassy clearings it is a popular spot for water-skiers, swimmers and picnickers. The pretty and easy track that encircles it attracts joggers and walkers.
Rotokakahi, the Green Lake, on the other hand, is eerily empty, quiet and still, with a spiritual, almost forbidding feel, even on a bright summers’ day when the purr of speed-boats and the shouts swimmers on the Blue Lake echo in the trees.
One of the most important tools that the Maori brought from their homeland in Hawaiki was the toki, or stone adze. They found, in Aotearoa, a land rich in timber and with the toki, they shaped it into houses, canoes and a thousand large and small implements and weapons for use in daily life. Also with the toki, they decorated almost everything with intricate carvings.
Te Wananga Whakairo
Over the years, other carving tools evolved and so did the art of whakairo or carving. Wananga Whakairo or carving schools were established. Whakairo became a prestigious art. Then, with the arrival of the Pakeha settlers in the 19th century, steel tools were introduced and with them came a whole new world of possibilities for carving. But still, the faithful toki continued to play an important part in the art of whakairo.
Apprentice carvers at work at the Wananga Whakairo
Te Wananga Whakairo, or carving school at Te Puia was established in 1967 under the leadership of Master Carver John Taiapa. Since then, each year, the school takes in a fresh group of young apprentices for training in the prestigious art of whakairo. And although they are trained in a variey of techniques and tools, the toki is still used as a method of blocking out heavy work.
Visitors to Te Puia can watch the carvers and photograph them as they work.
Some of the the work produced in Te Wananga Whakairo are on display and on sale in Te Puia’sTaonga Gallery and shop.
When the first Maoris arrived in Aotearoa, they found a place much harsher and colder than the mild, warm islands that they had come from. In their homeland, Hawaiki, clothes had been mainly a matter of personal adornment. Now they were a necessity.
Te Rito
Materials for clothing came from the forest and the land. Cloaks were fashioned from the skins of native dogs and from the feathers of birds, particularly kiwi. The hardy and abundant flax plant was an especially important resource. The fibres were separated from the leaves and the fine thread woven into warm and supple garments as well as into bags, nets, blankets and wall coverings. Patterns and designs of great beauty and significance evolved.
Te Rito
Although, with the arrival of the Pakeha, Maori embraced a range of new materials like cotton and wool, they retained traditional designs and methods of weaving. So, the art of weaving was enhanced and preserved.
Te Rito
Te Rito, the weaving school at Te Puia opened in 1969. Its first Director was Emily Schuster, daughter of a master carver and niece of Rotorua’s legendary Guide Rangi. She worked at the school, teaching and promoting women’s crafts until her death in 1997.
Te Rito trains students in traditional methods of weaving. It offers day and night courses as well as training sessions and workshops on Marae around the country.
Visitors to Te Rito can observe and photograph students as they learn and practise the ancient traditions of weaving.
Some of the works produced in Te Rito can be bought at Te Puia's Taonga Gallery and Gift Shop.
Although you can browse in Te Puia’s information galleries and wander perfectly safe pathways through the thermal park, it’s really worthwhile joining one of the free guided tours.
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Te Puia, The New Zealand Institute of Maori Arts and Crafts, at Whakarewarewa, is one of Rotorua’s most visited tourist attractions. With its thermal park, Marae, (community meeting place) whare whakairo (carved meeting house), huge carved waka (canoe) stunning modern information centre, weaving school, carving school, kiwi house, Maori concerts, as well as its shop full of exquisite (and authentic) art, artefacts and souvenirs, there is a great deal to experience.
Kapa Haka performance at Te Puia
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Rotorua is often affectionately referred to by the people of Aotearoa-New Zealand as Rotovegas. This is because, like Los Vegas USA, Rotorua is a show town.
A swinging piupiu
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Rotorua is to Aotearoa New Zealand as Florence is to Italy – a place where the country's art and culture is at its finest.
Whakairo and kowhaiwhai at the Princes' Gate
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Set on the very edge of Lake Rotorua, on the southern fringe of the Government Gardens, the Polynesian Spa offers a taste of total indulgence. Long and widely famed for its miraculous waters, it ranks today among the world’s top spas.
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The magnificent Rotorua Government Gardens are unique among the great public gardens of the world. Here, you can not only do all the things you'd do in any park - belt a tennis ball across a net, cycle along paths fringed with flower beds, smell the roses, perch on the edge of lily pond and feed the ducks, but you can also peer into bubbling mudpools, breathe in the salubrious (albeit rather overpowering) sulphur scented steam and soak in some of the world's best mineral pools.
You’ll find the Government Gardens on the edge of the lake, just a stone’s throw from the CBD and on the doorstep of some of the city’s best hotels. They’re a mecca for tourists and a favourite spot for locals
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No matter how you approach Rotorua, in the centre Aotearoa New Zealand’s North Island, you’re assured of some spectacular country.
On the shores of Lake Rotorua
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