Holiday - Day 3 - Rotorua

On my second day I went to Te Puia. The tour guide took us past the Maori village and to the Kiwi House. The house the kiwi live in is dark in the day time so I was able to see them running around and foraging for food, they then have day time in middle of the night by turning on a big lamp. 

The next stop was the thermal valley.

With hot springs

geysers

and bubbling mud pools.

The mud bubbles look like little frogs leaping.

This geyser goes off  regularly. After waiting for almost an hour in the afternoon sun the geyser went off for about 30 minutes. It was incredible with water pooling on the rock and cascading down in to the river below. 

Holiday - Day 2 - Rotorua

On my first day in Rotorua I walked through the Government Gardens to Lake Rotorua.

Thermal springs.

Rotorua Museum.  

The Lakeland Queen paddle steamer. I went for a lunch cruise around Lake Rotorua.

Views from the museum observation tower of Lake Rotorua and Government Gardens.

The Museum was originally built as a Spa. As well as exhibitions on the thermal nature of the region, the Maori settling of the area and the history of tourism in the area there are treatment rooms and the basement with all of the original pipe work and baths for mud baths.

Walking back through the Government Gardens I spotted this Pukeko.

After running away from me

he decided he didn't like the look of me and kept charging me until I went away!

Holiday Day 1 - Wellington - One last look around

The first day of our holiday and our last morning together was dry and sunny, hurrah! We headed to Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand. However, the shop and the cafe were as far as we got. The sun was too rare to waste inside so after a coffee I went for a wander around the harbour. 

The Maori Hall, were we had the welcome ceremony earlier in the week.

Sea Kayaks near to the Maori Hall. 

Te Papa.

After lunch we were taken to the airport.

The Sydney plane with company members heading off on holiday to the Gold Coast, Los Angeles and Thailand or back to London with our large collection of luggage.

I watched them fly off to Sydney as I waited to board this little Air New Zealand place to Rotorua and the first stop on my holiday.

Wellington - Opera House

We were performing at The Opera House in Wellington. This is a very different theatre to His Majesty's, it has a quite tired feel to it as it is due refurbishment and earthquake strengthening.

There is a lot of graffiti surrounding the theatre. 

Even the stage door is covered.

There is no prompt desk here but I have a couple of good monitors and am almost sat on stage so I have a good direct view of most of the stage (especially for Henry).

This is my cue light for sound. It looks like it should launch a rocket!

As there was no stand by function I ended up having to give verbal cues for sound. We've had another good week and with the 'weather bomb' had decidedly British weather (heavy rain and strong winds) for most of the week, but with turnarounds everyday we were kept busy anyway.

Wellington - Maori Welcome Ceremony

Having teched and opened Henry V and attended post show drinks with the Governor the previous day, we gathered early in the morning by this statue on the harbour.

Once we were all assembled the doors opened and the group gathered inside performed a Maori welcome. We then made our way inside - gentlemen first - and were greeted in the traditional Maori fashion of touching noses by our festival hosts. There were speeches from local Maori's and the festival organisers before they opened the floor to the visiting companies. The Propeller boys kicked things off by singing Te Deum from Henry V and were followed by offerings from the other companies present. Our host rounded things off with a haka before tea and muffins. It was then off to the theatre for tech #2 - The Winter's Tale.