Horses, Cableways, and Blue and Green Lakes

Cambridge Thoroughbred Lodge

 After saying goodbye to our overnight farm hosts, we visited a stud farm just outside the town of Cambridge.

It is a stud farm, in that it has a (count it, one) horse standing at stud.  Mostly it seems to hold horse sales and put on shows involving horses, and they staged a show for us.  We enjoyed some sunshine and coffee before the start.

  

The show arena was indoors.

Our host rode a horse named José, one of New Zealand's wild horses, called Kaimanawa.  The breed is descended from the mounts sent over with British troops in the 19th century.

He demonstrated how the horse had been trained to ignore loud noises (here he's cracking a whip) and distractions such as the rider standing on the horse's back.

  

Something dragging on the ground behind a horse, and opening a large umbrella near the horse's head apparently spooks many horses, but not José.

  

The audience had a chance to pet José.

Several of our group tried their hand at cracking the whip.  It's harder than it looks.

  

  

Stumpy, an American miniature horse, was the other star of the show.

At the end, everyone who wanted to ride José around the show ring got the chance to do so.

José, up close and personal.

Some other horses we saw in the stable and outside.

It's Spring here and a number of new-born horses were with their mothers.

Saying goodbye to Stumpy as we depart.

Skyline Gondola

We drove on to Rotorua, where we'll stay for two nights.  Before going to the hotel, we went up to the Skyline Cableway Restaurant by gondola.

Excellent views from the gondola.

There are several attractions at the top, including a "luge" course and something called the Sky Swing.  It's aptly named.

In the restaurant we had long tables by the windows and enjoyed a buffet lunch.

From the top, some great views of the Rotorua area.

After descending on the gondola, our bus drove through Rotorua's Government Gardens before taking us to the Blue and Green Lakes and then to our hotel.

 A hot spring, with sulphur-laden steam.  We'll see a lot more such hot springs tomorrow.

The Blue and Green Lakes

These two lakes are adjacent to one another outside Rotorua; they are separated by a ridge with a view point from which both lakes can be seen.

The Blue Lake, Lake Tikitapu, is the one we walked partway around.  It has extremely clear blue water, hence the name.  It's a popular spot for on-the-water recreation, hiking, and picnicking.

The Green Lake, Lake Rotokakahi, is considered sacred by the Māori and non-Māori do not go there.  It appears emerald green from above.

On our way to the lakes, we drove by a forest planted with pines all in neat rows.

Testing the water on the Blue Lake's small beach.

This dog decided that he would sneak up on a duck by swimming out to it. Good luck with that.

His companion was content to let the first dog make a fool of itself.

Many trees that, from a distance, resemble palms are in fact ferns.  Much of the vegetation around the Blue Lake is ferns.

Sights we saw as we hiked around about half of the Blue Lake.

  

  

The silver fern is a national emblem of New Zealand.  The bottoms of the leaves are silver; the top sides are green.

Someone has enhanced a natural face shape on this tree.

The Green Lake, as seen from the viewpoint between the two lakes.

We boarded the bus for our hotel.  Tomorrow, it's all about sheep at the Agrodome and all about Māori history and culture at Whakawerawera.