Whakarewarewa Living Village & Napier

We awaken and get together without much of a breakfast.  I have had to go down to the picnic area to receive much of an internet signal to try to find us a hotel for the night in Napier and to update the blog.  I am not successful in finding a hotel in our price range, but am able to get the blog up to date through yesterday.  We gather up our belongings and head out to an immediate cry of hunger from the backseat.  Well, this is a bit soon, don't you think?  We do a drive through thingy and get back on our path to the Maori village.  The kids are trying to get out of this town as soon as possible because of the sulfuric smell in the air.  We are heading to a Living Maori Village which is to say a place where descendents of the original native people still live much like they did way back when they arrived on the "seven canoes".  The place is called Whakarewarewa Living Village (pronounced faka rewa rewa) and we arrive for a self-guided tour initially.  We walk around and go to a performance area where we anticipate an 11:15 show about the culture of the Maori people.  The dance is very interesting and the similarities between this culture and the native Hawaiians and Fijiians is very interesting.  The costumes, the dances and the sounds of the language are all somewhat similar.  These were descendants of peopled from Polynesian and Micronesia who set sail hundreds of years ago to find new lands.  These Maori live in a geothermal area where their is no longer seismic activity, but this is some of the thinest crust of the Earth's surface which allows very hot water to escape and lend the sulfuric aroma to the town around us.  The heat underneath the surface causes large sink-holes and in some areas the water is actually boiling.  The people living here can cook their food in the ponds of boiling water - 10 seconds for corn and veggies, 3 minutes for fish!  Other areas have boiling mud in which they take therapeutic baths and a communal bathing area which is used regularly by the 65 inhabitants. Alas, we have to move on down the road. We take a guided tour where we learn all about the history of the place and its people.  Afterward, we get onto the highway and head down the road toward Napier, the "most art deco place" on the planet - or so we are told.  We will have to check the veracity of that statement!  We arrive in Napier around 5:30 and head straight for the information kiosk in the center of town to secure that evening's accommodations.  Sure enough, we find a jewels of a spot and get checked into the "Spanish Lady" hotel.  We hit the grocery and opt for a sumptuous dinner of steak and fresh pasta with cream sauce - a missing luxury from our eating options of late.  Yum.