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Published: July 27th 2009
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Before any representitives of Rotorua's tourist agency try and sue me for libel, the title is of course a reference to the rather overpowering sulphurous smell that lurks around Rotorua, and is not me taking a cheapshot at the town, which I actually thought was a rather pleasant place. However, like Auckland, Rotorua didn't get off to a flyer with me, through no fault of its own. You see, back in Auckland, the same chap that had been trying to sell me the bus ticket had recommended me a hostel there when I said I'd be doing my own thing. As he'd been very helpful, I didn't have the heart to say no, and let him get on reserving it for me. When I turned up, it was miles out of town, expensive and filled with the screaming teenagers that I'd been trying to avoid. Unfortunately, I'd already paid for that night, but the following morning I found a much nicer place in the centre.
Once all that kerfuffle was sorted, Rotorua greeted me with a mixed sort of day. It was always threatening rain, but nice enough to get out and about, and so this is what I did.
Kuirau Park was the first stop on my wacky adventure (I thought I ought to jazz this up a bit), and this was no ordinary park. That is, unless you consider an ordinary park to be one with bubbling pools of mud, and more steam floating round than a 1920s train convention. In that case, it was just an ordinary park.
From there, I followed my nose down to the lakeside, and after trying and failing to be arty taking photos of black swans and rainbows and the like found my way to Sulphur Point, which, as the name suggests is an area with quite a lot of sulphur, and is indeed the smelliest bit of town. At this point I must make a confession, I really liked the smell. Slightly poisonous perhaps, but I'll live with it. And if it was really poisonous, I'd have died with it, but I didn't so thats that. Anyway, the coolest bit of sulphur point was seeing the bit where the sulphurous water meets in a distinctive line with the none acidic normal lake water. Oh, and the geysers obviously.
My wanderings eventually led me to the park containing the Whakarewarewa
geysers, including the famous Pohutu one, which erupts upto 30m. It was a bit late, and I planned to come back the next day to look round the park properly, but nipped into the office to see how much the entry was. The lady told me, but also said that if I just nip round the sides I can watch the geysers for free. Score.
After a good amount of geyser watching, it was time to retreat back into town, have a bit of a chinwag with some of my fellow hostellers, and relax in the hostel's geothermally powered hot tub. All this followed up with sausage, chips and beans, then a cracking brew. I liked Rotorua.
Stewart
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