(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Still on my retro tour of New Zealand and still in Whakarewarewa, the geothermal village in Rotorua, the central North Island, it’s been amazing to see the geothermal landscape and learn about the pro’s and con’s of living in the midst of it.
Here is a quick look at the actual houses the village residents live in.
All of them are wooden as far as I can make out and they are all raised up off the ground too… this probably allows Mother Nature to give you natural and warm underfloor heating rather than charred toes and blistered feet when getting out of bed in the morning.
We are told that because of the heavy downpour, steam isn’t rising off the streets as usual… but the ground is warm all the same. It came as no surprise that not one of the houses had a chimney.
In the last photo is the house that’s due for demolition soon… I stumbled on the photo later after deleting ones taken earlier that showed more raindrops than house. This was the house that will not be living happily every after, after a new steam vent opened up under the kitchen and laundry floor and has since rendered the home structurally unsound.
Mother Nature has her own rules… and it’s clear that living here gives you a whole new respect for her power and the amazing energy that she produces. Local Maori have learned to live as harmoniously as possible with the living earth here, and most of the time it seems to work very well indeed.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
