It didn't smell that bad! Some people love to make mountains out of molehills!

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Ahh Rotorua,

Not much happens in this fair little town. I stayed for three days and visited the Wai-o-Tapo Thermal Wonderland and that was largely about it. The first day in any place I arrive in tends to be a wash out really but I did find some amazing Lamb, Honey and Rosemary sausages in the local supermarket! Six for $5 which is about 2quid and they weren't the factory floor sausages either so I deemed them a bargain.

The hostel was ok and I met some nice people who I have stayed in touch with. But the guy who owned the hostel was a complete sleaze and was making very inappropriate suggestions and comments to one of the girls I was friendly with. I met a couple of people and we got talking, later cooking a meal together in the hostel. All of a sudden this girl wafted in and just threw herself at the group I was sitting with complaining that she had been traveling alone for three weeks and it was getting a bit much, then came the waterworks. Now you may think this is harsh of me but something struck me as very false about this young lady so I didn't want to fall for anything just yet. I was right, within an hour she was everybody's best friend, taking photos of all of us an generally demanding everyone's sympathy and attention. Another couple of hours and I found her curled up on the sofa with a guy she had only met three hours previously, completely forgetting about the boyfriend at home! It all seemed a bit too much drama and not a lot of real genuine unhappiness, especially when we were told that she had been having these amazing experiences on her own so a few of us weren't sure what the problem was.

I decided I didn't want my trip bombarded by someone else's drama so steered well clear of them for a while. I went with an Israeli guy to the thermal wonderland and impressed him with my vast knowledge of the language.😱 It was cool but I would say the Lady Knox Geyser is not quite worth the entrance fee. Interesting to see but not so interesting to see a man toss some soap in for it to bubble a bit like an excited whirlpool, then die down minutes later. I was expecting some sort of explosion but it didn't happen. The park was lovely though, it was quite interesting to see massive thermal lakes of fluorescent green and all sorts of bizarre colours. I'm quite glad it wasn't hot though, as I think it would have been unbearable. I got to the massive Champagne Pool where the steam was just wafting all over the place and that was pretty hot. As for the reported smell of Sulphur - it really wasn't that bad. Sometimes you would get a brief waft of something unpleasant but it soon disappeared despite all the tourists I heard saying "ewww it stinks".

Unfortunately for me I did not get to see a Haka as I ended up not going to the Maori evening (Maitai) because it was quite pricey so instead I headed to Taupo.......

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Photos

Lady Knox Geyser
Ooooooooh. All after a bar of soap!