Rotorua

We caught a bus from Hobbiton (Matamata) to Rotorua, which only took around an hour. We stepped off the bus and were immediately hit by the smell of rotten eggs. Rotorua sits in a crater that lies on top of volcanic ground which means there are a lot of hot springs, mud pools and other geothermal things in the city and with volcanic matter comes sulphur and the smell of rotten eggs. It was surprising how quickly you adapted to the smell though, it became more of a warm sensation in your nostrils, one that wasn’t there before and you’d rather not be there but there’s nowt you can do about moving volcanic ground eh? Plus, we had come here for the volcanoes so kind of our own fault.

We found our hostel after walking through the park (and stumbling onto geothermal pools in the local park) and were surprised to find that the manager of our hostel (Kiwi Paka) used to be a nanny in Swansea! We checked in and organised a visit to the main geysers in NZ (Waiotapu – see next post) for the following day so we spent the afternoon having a little walk around Rotorua. There is a lovely lake which Nicola and I walked around, stopping for a quick drink; I went for a L&P – it is world famous in New Zealand – and Nicola went for a delicious sounding “Golden Pash”.

We walked past Rotorua Museum, a lovely neo-Tudor building sitting on the edge of Sulphur Point in the Government Gardens, where we fed birds and generally enjoyed the sunshine. After taking some pictures we continued past the Museum and onto Sulphur Point (the smell didn’t improve there funnily enough) where we encountered small mud pools forming in the path in front of us – crazy. We could hear bubbling underground as geothermal pools underground prepared to burst through the ground, which they didn’t whilst we were there fortunately.

We also went to Otinemuphu, a local Maori village, where we saw an old Missionary church with a Maori Jesus window (unusual) and a famous (in New Zealand) Maori meeting house which was intricately carved and an interesting sight. We heard a bit more bubbling as we were in this village and we were surprised to find more geothermal pools underneath the pavement. We walked past a few houses (where we were greeted with Kia Ora by some local Maori’s) where we saw how the geothermal pools were being utilised by local houses – they appeared to provide hot water as there were pumps and things over some of the pools; the tell-tale white sulphur smelly smoke pouring out of make shift generators. Finally, for dinner we stopped for some fish and chups (not a typo, say chups and you are saying chips like a Kiwi) before we went back to the hostel. We were advised not to walk through the park at night (the hostel backed onto the park) as geothermal pools had the habit of forming above ground without notice and if you fell into one of them…well, you’d be lucky to escape with just a few scalds; a 9 year old boy died after falling into one of the geothermal pool.

We didn’t find out until we were leaving that Rotorua is the home of Zorbing (the thing where you get in a big ball and roll down a hill); they have tracks and everything; like a toboggan but you’re inside an inflatable ball. It was a shame we discovered this on the last day as I quite fancied giving it a go…next time eh.