Travelsmartplanet

In Whakerewarewa, New Zealand, the Maori way of life is preserved. The hot thermal mineral baths were an important part of their life. Here these hot thermal pools are designed for easy sitting, entry and exit. You can see the younger generation enjoys them too. This was the young lad who earlier jumped into the freezing water for visitors (see earlier Instagram) so it must have been especially yummy for him to soak in the warm water.

Younger generations of Maori are still involved in showing off the traditions of the indigenous people. In Whakerewarewa this boy was brave enough to jump into frigid water for coins the visitors threw in.

The Kauri trees are endangered so it’s really special when you can go into a forest and see quite of few very old ones. The Arataki Visitor Centre goes to great lengths to preserve and protect them. You can climb up a high trail and see then at the top reaching for the sky. The circular cluster is called The Cathedral.

In the trails outside the Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere NZ, you can get lost in the sea of ferns.

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The silver fern has been a symbol of New Zealand since the 1880s. To Maori, the shape of the fronds stood for strength, resistance, and power. To other New Zealanders, it’s exemplifies their homeland as it grows throughout the country from the North Island down to the coast of the South Island. It is the most abundant of all ferns in New Zealand. You can find it on all kinds of souvenirs. We bought sports socks with ferns on them as a momento of New Zealanders who enjoy lots of physical activity. 

You can take quiet walks in Waitakere’s Arataki Visitor Centre. These steps lead up and up and up to the treetop Cathedral of ancient Kauri trees. Worth the walk.

It’s surprising to find this peace and quiet in this amazing location outside the Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere so close to the bustling city of Auckland. These steps take you eventually up up up to the sky view. 

We liked it when this sign on an Arataki trail in Waitakere NZ teaches us how dead trees are a life system for other life forms: slaters, cockroaches, millipedes, wetas, spiders live on the decay.

Look closely and you can see a live Weta which lives at the Arataki Visitor Centre in Waitakere NZ. Wetas are so old that they have outlived the dinosaurs. They’ve hardly changed in 100 million years. They are nocturnal and are among the heaviest insects in the world. There are about 100 different varieties of Weta in New Zealand.

You just never know who you might meet when you travel. This wooden sculpture of a male is inside the Arataki Visitor Centre and Himione Heketarere is carved on the bottom.