Wellywood, the Wine Trail & other must-dos in New Zealand
Rotorua, about three hours’ drive southeast from Auckland, is a city of pungent smells. There’s the sulfur smell from pockets of volcanic activity, which blanket the city in a light aroma similar to a certain bodily emission. There’s the woolly smell of the sheep, which puts you in mind of Rotorua’s livestock and farming culture.
In actuality it’s the Maori cultural center, a geothermal valley whose residents — Maori compose 12 percent of New Zealand’s population — tap into natural resources like hot springs, geysers, and mud pools for their heat and health benefits. • Witness a real haka at Te Puia. Remember that viral video in which a Maori bride’s family sent her off with an emotional haka? At Maori village Te Puia you can witness this war dance in the flesh, as well as the ladies’ graceful poi dance and various love songs, complete with welcome and peace offering from a young Maori chief. We learned the Maori greeting “Kia ora,” which means “hello” and “welcome.”
It’s believed that the Maori first arrived in New Zealand 1,000 years ago from their fabled Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki, located somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean (although ethnically and linguistically links have also been found to the indigenous Taiwanese).
When Europeans settled in New Zealand after Capt. James Cook’s entry in 1769, they tried to end Maori culture by preventing them from speaking their language, and disciplining the Maori who did. “In the late 1800s the chief of our tribe thought of bringing tourism to the valley and that’s what saved our culture,” Te Puia host Rob tells us. All the proceeds from the shows and the hangi (a traditional Maori feast steamed underground) go to funding a school that teaches Maori youngsters their native language, woodcarving, and weaving. www.tepuia.com • Catch the eruptions of Pohutu Geyser by day… and night. Perhaps the most emotional moment of my trip was gathering around Pohutu Geyser — which erupts once or twice every hour — under a full moon, as we sat on naturally heated rocks nursing cups of hot chocolate that were tepid in comparison. Rob told us the story of how, in the 1600s, the chief of the tribe that lived in the geothermal valley killed a rival chief — Rob’s ancestor — so his tribe exacted their revenge: 400 men danced the haka around Pohutu and went to war against the killers, driving the incumbent tribe out of the valley and then moving in themselves. “So I grew up here,” Rob said, gesturing to Pohutu’s white cloud of sulfur-laced steam. The geyser provided them warmth and hot water on demand; even the hot mud from the bubbling pools soothed their bruised and aching muscles after war. Reservations@tepuia.com • Watch the sheep show at the Agrodome. Sheep are the stars of this entertaining show
dozen tunnels) and the latter with roadways supported by pillars hundreds of meters high above the ravine floor. In other areas the road skirts mountainsides, making for sharp curves and hairpin turns.
Hunan makes the most of its mountains as a tourist draw. Chief among these is Zhangjiajie, the lynchpin of Hunan’s tourism push and the focal point of the recent China International Tourism Festival that brought together over 400 travel industry and media professionals.
Hunan – and specifically Zhangjiajie – has invested heavily in tourism infrastructure in the last decade. Since opening up to tourism in 1982 – after it was “discovered” in 1979 – the number of visitors has grown nearly a hundred times from an initial 50,000. From roads to bridges to walking/trekking paths, cable cars to escalators and elevators, visitors are afforded a pretty comprehensive experience of this remarkable nature park. There are over 400 hotels and lodging facilities, from the sprawling new 5-star Garden City Phoenix Hotel to quaint homestyle inns, and every price category in between.
The 369-square-kilometer Wulingyuan Scenic Area was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992 and in 2004 was proclaimed a World Geological Park. The various sites within the scenic area – Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Tianzi Mountain Natural Reserve and Suoxi Valley Nature reserve – are linked by an impressive road network and serviced by nonpolluting buses; visitors are let off at the main entry and tourist buses are not allowed to go into the scenic area, not only because of environmental concerns but also because straight out of the panorama before you. In fact, the peaks locals used to call Quan Kun Zhu is now known as Hallelujah Mountain, although it may disappoint you to know that the movie was not filmed here and Cameron has not actually seen this place that looks exactly like his mythical Pandora.
And then there is Tianmen Mountain, considered the soul of the Wuling Mountain Chain. The cable car to the top of the mountain is touted as the world’s longest passenger cableway, with a total length of 7,455 meters and an ascent of 1,279 meters. At over 130 meters there is a natural hole – the tian men or heaven’s gate – which has seen a small plane and a wingsuit glider go through it. Construction is ongoing for an observation platform at the hole.
There are kilometers of pathways built onto the cliff face at the top of the mountain, including a glass skywalk called the Coiling Dragon Cliff which opened just last August. Unfortunately, our rush-rush tour did not allow us to take this acrophobic walk (which would have been really fun!); instead we were taken on the newly built 12-part escalator down the mountain, which really doesn’t add anything to the Tianmen experience as it is ensconced inside the mountain, devoid of scenery.
From there we boarded electric buses down to the base of the mountain back to our bus. It is a steep 11-kilometer stretch that has 99 sharp turns and goes from 1,300 meters down to 200 meters. Our driver says he does the 20-plus-minute run up and down a couple hundred times a day. A week after we were there, an Italian driver in a modified red Ferrari raced up the twisty road in a record 10 minutes 31 seconds. Other daredevil drivers have joined the Red Bull “drift king” event that had them sliding down the tight bends.
Being with the tourism conference allowed us to visit the new Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge, which at the time was closed to the public. The world’s longest (430 meters) and highest (300 meters) glass bridge gleamed in the morning sun, delicate and graceful, from afar appearing like a spider’s filament stretched between two mountains.
Even those of us with a fear of heights checked it out; this is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things (not to mention expensive, 118 yuan to gain entry to the Grand Canyon and another 138 yuan to go on the bridge). With just a few hundred of us, we had room a-plenty for selfies and groupfies, getting photographed lying on the glass and walking the length with relative ease. We were told bungee jumping will in the future be allowed, but that is best left to the true thrill seekers. Because for us, there are more than enough thrills that Hunan is ready to share with its visitors.