The Bottom of the Lake Road


This is the edge of Lake Tarawera. The road from Rotorua to this spot has ended on a small sandy beach and this magnificent lake with its mountain backdrop. 

All would be peace and quiet here except that one of the locals, naked but for a small black loin cloth has just started his car to cool it down and 'You make me feel like dancing' is blaring from his car radio and the helicopter from which I saw this spot this morning has just gone overhead. 

Another local is taking pictures of her two sons who have just dived off the wooden jetty with their dog. The naked Maori has decided to go over and talk to her. I hope she likes her male buttocks on the well aged side.  They both seem quite unaware that one of them forgot to put clothes on this morning.  

He has decided that this would be a good time to dispense with the loin cloth and emulate the two boys by jumping off the jetty.  I'm not sure that smacking one's genitals into cold water from six or eight feet would suit that many people, but this is obviously how naked Maoris get their rocks off as he repeats the feat several times before returning to shore, reattaching the loin cloth to what's left of his privates and lighting a cigarette. This is obviously a man with a keen sense of self-preservation.

As we left this spot, we passed a police car on its way to the lakeside. Presumably some public spirited citizen had decided that the sight of the ageing male form unencumbered by clothing, jumping of piers and doing press-ups in the shallows - oh did I forget that detail? - was all too much for their delicate sensibilities. I hope the police cells are warm in this country!

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