Rotten Eggs

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We left Taupo the next morning and headed up to Rotorua. About 20km outside the town was another set of free hot springs called Kerosene Creek. We had met an ex tour bus operator who had told us about them. While Carol Anne and Orial went in myself and Garreth decided not to bother. Just as well really as 20 minutes later a tour buss turns up and about 20 people all get off and photograph Carol Anne and Orial in the hot springs then jump back on the bus again.

Once they had cooked themselves in the springs we continued onto Rotorua. We also stopped at the “Craters of the Moon”. Almost theme park like it was a massive area of land that did resemble exactly that. With massive amount of steam pushing up through the earth everything around them were killed off. Over time as the ground had been burnt away the craters get bigger and deeper. At the bottom of some of them you can just make out the bubbling mud at the bottom.
The first thing you notice about this town is the smell. As the Sulphur is continually coming out of the ground all over the town there is a continuous smell of rotten eggs. While at first we found this disgusting it is obviously something that the locals just live with.

We checked into a place called the Funky Green Voyager which turned out to be one of the best hostels we had been in. We spent the rest of the day and the next day on several walks of the town and area.
In the middle of town there is a park, nothing unusual there apart from this one looks like it should be in a set from a spooky movie. The lake in the centre is permanently steaming which means when you walk though the trees you are surrounded by this white fog, very surreal. Next we went to the sulphur flats which turned out to be a total waste of time. I’m sure someone in the local council was asked to find a way to get tourists to visit the local rubbish dump and his answer was to simply put a footpath through it and call it a scenic walk. The flats were full of old tyres and broken glass so we soon left this picturesque area!

We were hanging around for a special reason. We wanted to go white water rafting but not any king of rafting, we wanted the best. Grade 5 down the Wairoa River.

The water from this river is diverted off to a hydro electric power station but twice a months the water is re-routed back into the original path of the river changing a small trickle into a raging torrent.
The guide books call this stretch of water some of the best and most dangerous in the world. Hence the reason we wanted to do it.
Despite booking late we managed to get a place. The manager of a hostel explained this was because the stretch of water was so dangerous that not many people would book to do it and would take the easier option available.
The following morning we were taken by buss along with a few other people for nearly an hour up towards Tauranga. We arrived in a field were the company had pitched a tent for us to shelter from the rain. Because this is only a twice a month event there are no buildings in place for changing just this tent in a field.
Once kitted up we were driven another mile or so to the start of the rapids. The boats were waiting for us in a little pool. We spent about 15 minutes getting instructions on what the guide would be shouting at us. There were far to many commands to remember and once on the water you couldn’t hear what he said any way.

The rapids had names like ‘Mother’s Nightmare’, ‘Rollercoaster’ and ‘The Big Waterfall’.
They started us off with a couple of small rapids to get us used to the boat and what to do. In between each set of rapids was a pool area where we could stop and get told what to do for the next section. We stopped just before the first set of grade five rapids and immediately you could sense more danger. All the previous rapids were done alone. But this next section had people stood all other the rocks with ropes and life belts waiting to catch anyone who went in. Apparently it was ok to fall in at the bottom of the rapids but if you fall in at the top and you go down the rapids without being in the boat you will more than likely need a wooden box to go home in. There were four boats in all and we all made it over the first set of grade five rapids.
We climbed out of the boat for a while and climbed some rocks just so we could plummet 20 feet back into the water again. The next set of big rapids claimed one of the boats right at the bottom. It looked like chaos with all the other guides trying to get people out of the water before they got washed away. Luckily through the cob web of ropes everyone was fine.
This has to be one of the best things I have done.

After finishing the rafting we were all exhausted so we stayed another night in the Funky Green Voyager. The following morning we headed off towards Gisbourne.

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