The Daily Boomerang

First you had violent rapist wombats in New Zealand and now you have dangerous hedgehogs:

A man in New Zealand has been charged with using a hedgehog as a weapon, the New Zealand Herald has reported.

Police said William Singalargh, 27, had hurled the hedgehog about 5m (16ft) at a 15-year-old boy.

“It hit the victim in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks,” said Senior Sgt Bruce Jenkins, in the North Island town of Whakatane.

It was unclear whether the hedgehog was still alive when it was thrown, though it was dead when collected as evidence.

The police spokesman said the suspect was arrested “for assault with a weapon, namely the hedgehog.” [BBC - via Tim Blair]

And here I was thinking Australia had dangerous animals.

Fortunately it looks like the Social Primate didn’t run into any rapist wombats or deadly flying hedgehogs during his recent trip to New Zealand.

Australians often claim that their neighbors in New Zealand are a bit slow and this story will only reinforce this commonly held belief:

Arthur Cradock, 48, from the South Island town of Motueka, called police last month to tell them he was being raped by the marsupial at his home and needed urgent assistance.

Cradock, an orchard worker, later called back to reassure the police operator that he was all right.

"I’ll retract the rape complaint from the wombat, because he’s pulled out. Apart from speaking Australian now, I’m pretty all right you know. I didn’t hurt my bum at all."

He pleaded guilty in Nelson District Court to using a phone for a fictitious purpose and was sentenced to 75 hours’ community work.  [Daily Telegraph]

Unsurprisingly police claim alcohol was involved in then incident.  Here is a word of advice to anyone in the future that wants to claim they were raped by an animal, at least claim you were raped by an animal that is native to your country.  Wombats are a marsupial native to Australia and are not found in New Zealand, but then again I guess claiming to be raped by kiwi would be even less believable. 

Listed below are the postings about my wonderful journey through beautiful country of New Zealand.  So far I have completed uploading pictures and writing travelogs for just the locations I have visited on the North Island.  I do plan in the coming months to complete the holiday journal by posting pictures and travelogs about the scenic locations I visited in New Zealand’s spectacular South Island.  Until then I hope everyone enjoys my travelogs from the equally spectacular North Island. Thanks for reading. 

New Zealand’s North Island:

Exploring the North Island of New Zealand
The City of Sails - Auckland, New Zealand
Panoramic View of Auckland, New Zealand
Beautiful Taupo, New Zealand
Hotel Recommendation in Taupo
Exploring New Zealand History at the Taupo Museum
Walking through the Craters of the Moon
Video of Walking Through the Craters of the Moon
The Hobbiton Movie Set of Matamata
Video Footage of Hobbiton Village
Walking the Huka Track
Video of the Huka Falls
Video of the Aratiatia Dam
Hiking the Tongariro Crossing
On the Slopes of Mt. Doom
In the Heart of the Tongariro Crossing
The Final Descent of the Tongariro Crossing
Driving the Volcanic Highway
Touring New Zealand’s “Roto-vegas”
Video of Tongariro National Park, New Zealand
The Steaming Waters of Kerosene Creek
A Walk through the Waimangu Volcanic Valley
The Final Descent of the Waimangu Volcanic Valley
Experience Maori Culture at Te Puia Thermal Valley
Video of the Te Puia Maori Concert
A Walk through the Te Puia Thermal Valley
Video of Te Puia Thermal Valley
Hiking Up Tauranga’s Beautiful Mt. Maunganui

 The final destination for my wife and I on our tour of New Zealand’s beautiful North Island was the northern port city of Tauranga.  Tauranga is the ninth largest city in New Zealand and features one of the largest ports in the country.  This area has always served as a harbor with Tauranga actually meaning “safe anchorage” in the local Maori dialect.

Tauranga is actually a nice blue collar town which is experiencing much economic growth.  However, the main reason tourists come to visit Tauranga is not because of economic growth but because of the nice beaches to the north of the town and the beautiful volcanic cone of Mt. Maunganui that towers over the harbor city:

The volcanic cone of Mt. Maunganui sits on the tip of a peninsula that extends out from the New Zealand mainland helping to from the natural harbor that is the livelihood of the people of the city.  On the ocean side of this peninsula is one of the most popular beaches in the area:

At the far end of the beach is where the trail up Mt. Maunganui begins:

The start of the trail is a fairly steady ascent up the volcanic cone which quickly provides a nice view back over the beach below:

The beach was not overly busy the day we visited the area, probably due to the cool breeze blowing over the beach, but this same breeze did cause quite a few sail boaters to sail the nearby seas:

Besides views of the beach and the sea the lookout I was at also had some great views up towards the rocky summit of the volcano as well:

Continuing up the mountain the well maintained trail began to become much steeper as I closed in on the summit of the mountain:

On the top of Mt. Maunganui is a few benches, a weather station, and a historical marker:

The historical marker was placed on the summit to recognize the friendship between the local settlers and the indigenous Maori people:

The view of the peninsula from the summit is really quite stunning:

Besides having a nice beach, the peninsula below Mt. Maunganui is filled with me hotels, bars, and great restaurants.  As can be seen from the summit it is a really nice place to visit.

Besides looking over the peninsula the summit also provides views down into the actual crater of this extinct volcano:

The crater is filled with grass, shrubs, and trees but I could easily make out the crater and  even proceeded to walk along the rim of the crater in order to get more views of the surrounding country side to include this view looking over the bay towards the actual city of Tauranga:

I continued to walk around the rim and was rewarded with a spectacular view of a stunning beach that extended out into the distance as far as I could see:

This view of this beautiful beach made me wish I had more time to spend to explore this beautiful area of the country, but my wife and I actually had to get back to Auckland in order to catch a flight to the South Island the next morning.   Our trip around New Zealand’s North Island was really quite spectacular and was really capped by this great hike up to the top of beautiful Mt. Maunganui.

Below are some short video clips I shot of the beautiful geysers at Te Puia Thermal Valley on the outskirts of the resort city of Rotorua.  The valley is located on New Zealand’s north island and a must see for anyone touring around the Rotorua area. 

View of the Geyser from a Far:

Here is a Closer Look at the Geysers:

Here is Another View of the Geysers:

The Te Puia Thermal Valley is located on the outskirts of New Zealand’s premier tourist resort city of Rotorua. The valley is owned by the local Maori tribe the Tuhourangi - Ngati Wahiaowhich calls the valley Whakarewarewa in their local dialect. Obviously Te Puia is a lot more easier to pronounce and thus the most popular name for this stunning thermal valley:

Whakarewarewa is the actual name of the valley and the more popular Te Puia label is actually the name of an ancient Maori fortress in the center of the valley:

This fortress was first constructed and occupied in 1325. The fortress is terraced and uses the natural thermal features of valley for added defensive measures. The local Maoris know the paths through the thermal pools and geysers which any invaders would not:

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Below is some video footage I shot of the Maori concert my wife and I attended during our trip to New Zealand.  The concert was located at the Te Puia Thermal Valley on the outskirts of the north island resort city of Rotorua. 

Maori Welcoming Ceremony

Opening Song of the Maori Concert

Maori Concert - Part 1

Maori Concert - Part 2

Note this wasn’t all the songs sung during the concert but just a few brief examples.  The entire concert went on for nearly an hour and was really a great experience to see.  My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

One of the best places in New Zealand to explore the nation’s history of its indigenous Maori people is at the Te Puia Thermal Valley on the outskirts of the resort city of Rotorua. Te Puia is Maori land that was first opened to the public in 1998 and is half a Maori cultural experience and half a thermal wonderland with the valley’s various geysers, pools, and thermal vents.

Finding Te Puia is easy considering it is on the edge of Rotorua and if you drive by it you cannot miss this massive gate that represents the entrance to the valley:

Just inside the entrance are large totem poles with impressive Maori artwork:

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Some people have all the luck:

A BACKPACKER has ditched plans to go fruit picking in New Zealand after winning $1 million in Lotto during his second day in the country.

The man, who wished to only reveal that he was ‘Australasian’, said he bought his ticket on the spur of the moment when he was in a lotto shop in Christchurch with two friends, stuff.co.nz reported.

He said he and his mates watched the Lotto draw on television last night.

"My heart started racing and I had to get my friends to double check the numbers," he said,

"The first thing I did was to ring my mum and share the good news with my family.

"It’s just a dream come true."  [News.com.au]

If I won a million bucks I sure would not be picking fruit as well.  I wish good luck to him and hopefully he doesn’t blow the money. 

After descending from the ridgeline of the Waimangu Volcanic Valley, a quick look up the side of the valley provides a glimpse of how high and steep the trail had descended down into the valley:

The sides of the valley were literally alive with hot boiling steam:

The hot steam and minerals provides plenty of nutrients for the variety of unique plant life that flourishes on the sides of the cliff:

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