The Day that Stunk!

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When mentioning Rotorua in casual conversation with various locals the one thing they’ll all tell you is that it stinks. It’s beautiful and great fun and all but it really dose emanate a foul stench.

Okay, it’s not too bad. I got use to it in about two minutes but every now and then the wind would waft our way a particularly potent patch of sulfuric fumes. We walked around town and enjoyed a beautiful rose garden (luckily they don’t charge you to do that and it smells nice) and the outside (the free part) of a museum with fantastic architecture. You can really see where the European and Island influences come together in some of the older buildings. It combines the intricate beam-work of Elizabethan style architecture with Maori carvings and detail. It’s really quite stunning!

Rotorua is also one of the big tourist hubs of the country and despite my philosophy of avoiding overly touristy things while traveling, sometimes you just have to do it. And unfortunately that also means spending money. Rotorua is the place to go if you want to skydive, zorb, or get lavishly primped and pampered in a spa but not really the place to go if you’re frugal or downright stingy. We walked to an information center in town for some ideas of things to do and maybe get lucky and score some discount coupons. We walked out with enough pamphlets to start our own information booth and sat down to looked at the map.

First choice of activities was the Hell's Gate Geothermal Reserve. I also would have enjoyed Zorbing or parasailing but I think I’ll have to leave those for the next time I come when I’m a little more financially well endowed. I love getting to see and explore some of New Zealand’s geographical gems so one of the world’s most active geothermal hot spots was obviously way up there on my list. It was a thirty dollar entrance fee to just get through the gate (Talk about a backwards indulgence! Paying to get through “Hell’s Gate”…) but I now firmly believe it was worth it.

The stench got worse as we walked in and I was almost tempted to pocket a small clump of yellow sulfur as a souvenir but couldn’t bring myself to actually come any closer to it. We walked along board-walked pathways and oohed and aahed over the steaming pools of stink. Boiling smelly mud has never been so fascinating! It was actually boiling. Violently boiling in some spots and everything steamed like a fresh dump in the arctic tundra. (I know that sounds crude, but it smelled like it too so I have to use it for imagery.)

We also walked past the biggest hot water waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere! Historically Maori warriors would bathe in it to wash their wounds after battle and before returning home to their families. It was said to hold great healing and restorative qualities.

On our way back to the entrance of the reserve we stopped at the thermal foot pool to soak our feet. To soak your feet in the good-for-you-smelliness is included in the general admissions fee, to soak your entire body will cost you your fist born and probably any human contact for at least a week. We sloshed around in the silky mud for a while and successfully smuggled out a water bottle full of it. (My water bottle may never recover but so far I’ve soaked it in peppermint soap, lemon juice, and vinegar and I think I’m making progress.)

I picked up a couple post cards at the gift shop and we headed home. It’s now currently a day later and I’m still smelling it! Unfortunately I think the sulfur soaked its way into my friendship bracelets and I’m just not quite willing to cut them off yet so I guess I’ll just have to suck it up.

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