While it has no primary research relevance, I went down to and stayed at National Park with a friend. Some of the places we went to were purely to be touristy as I don't usually do touristy kinds of trips. In order of days we went to the following:
Tuesday -
Huka Prawn Park
Huka Falls
Ngātoroirangi Māori rock carvings
Wairakei Terraces
Gollum's Pool
The Chateau
Wednesday -
Sky Waka
Taranaki Falls
Aratiatia Rapids
Thursday -
Desert Road
Hobbiton
Cambridge (Good Union, a church turned bar/restaurant)
Because of location, a good deal of the trip was dedicated to seeing as much as we could to do with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Places like Huka Falls, Wairakei Terraces, and the Taranaki Falls were chosen for the walks and the beauty of the locations themselves. Those three in particular have more to do with my research as they feature the natural landscape and can give an idea as to how it may have looked back in the 1200-1300s. The Ngātoroirangi rock carvings were amazing to see.
Some of the pictures taken can be seen on an Instagram Highlight (it does include my friend and I on it a lot): https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE4MDQ4NDIzODI2MzEwMzkw?utm_medium=copy_link
For the walks, it was nice to see the scenery and greenery. Most of it was quite lush and dense (aside from the trails) or where water would have passed through. However, most of the walks had more shrubbery and shorter trees than the taller conifer-broadleaf forests that are around Rotorua.
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