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Published: February 19th 2006
Our bus ride from Auckland was easy, only 1.5 hours. The driver was a good laugh, he was cracking jokes the whole way and he was also pretty clued up on Rotorua as he lived there. He even showed us his house, and when we arrived we were greeted by his wife waving at us.
The smell hit us when we got off the bus, due to the sulphur from the natural springs that are scattered all over the place, people's back yards, middle of the park even the golf course- there's no dodging them. This is New Zealand's most volcanic town, so this was to be expected. On our first day we had a look around, ate and generally relaxed. This was a real sleepy town, which was rubbing off on us (or perhaps we were trying to get inside away from the smell!).
Day two we headed off on a trip to Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters) Thermal Wonderland, which is a scenic reserve with lots of thermal activity including colapsed craters, cold and boiling pools of mud and water and steaming fumaroles. There is a system of streams underground which are heated by the magma which remains from
early erruptions. The first stop was to catch the daily firing up of the Geyser, where the guide puts soap into the Geyser to force it to shoot up water from the streams of water below. It was pretty impressive, even though it was forced to explode.
Next we spent some time wandering around the 'Thermal Wonderland', and saw some pretty impressive natural wonders, our favourites being Champagne Pool (the largest spring in the district with amazing coloured edges) and the Devils Bath (a crater filled with bright green water fed from Champagne Pool). It took about an hour and a half to walk around, and it was well worth it as neither of us had seen anything like this before. When we left we next stopped at the Exploding Mud Pools, which are the largest in NZ with violent bubbles of mud. Apparantly when cold its a great beauty treatment but we didnt try it out.
That evening we went to a Maori village evening, called Mitai. The food for the evening was cooked under the ground using traditional Maori methods i.e using the natural heat from the ground to cook the food. There were about 150
Martin at Devil's Bath
You can see how green the water is- it was really weirdpeople there one of which chose to be our 'Chief', and had to make a speech to the Whakaue tribe leader- it was pretty funny to say the least as this guy really got into it! They showed us some traditional Maori weapons and explained their uses, as well as teaching us some of the language and dancing. They also explained the meaning of the tattoos that they have inscribed on their faces and bodies.
After the show we ate the food that had been cooking for three hours, and the feast was pretty impressive. There was a distinctive taste to some of the food which put Laura off, but on the whole it was a good feed. We were then taken through a trail to view Glow-Worms and to see the natural cold water spring located at the tribal village. The evening was good, but was a little tacky, I know we are tourists ourselves, but this was a little too touristy for us. That said it was still very interesting to find out a little more about the Maori people and their traditions.
Next stop Wellington..
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