Last evening in Rotorua

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Well, I finished off my time in Rotorua with a bang! After leaving the library I went to a public park near the hostel that was rumored to have some thermal vents you could look at. The park itself was quite pretty, nicely manicured lawns and wooden fences surrounding patches of jungle plants that marked a thermal vent. Some of the vents were steaming pools of water, ranging from shallow to quite deep. One pool was actually mud that was going at a roiling boil! It was amazing to me that you could be standing on grass not 10 feet away from where these pools were so hot they were boiling, and feel nothing on your feet. Totally weird.



I was delighted to find that the city had constructed a heated pool in the park! It was hidden away in some bushes, so not in view, but easy to find by walking on the sidewalks that crisscrossed the park. The pool was water about knee deep in a cement rectangle, with board benches lining the edge, and water was circulated in/out of the pool. I think they just run the pipes underground, then the heated water comes back into the pool, but I'm not sure. Nevertheless, it was great fun to sit and dangle my legs in the pool while chatting with other visitors.



I then started to head back to the backpackers, only to run into Maddie and Charlotte on their way to look for me to get some dinner! We ended up eating downtown at a place called Nando's, which is a chicken restaurant they have in Australia as well. It was crazy expensive (a chicken and avocado burger alone was $14 NZD, about $11 USD) but pretty tasty. Nando's is famous for their periperi sauce, which is freaking SPICY. I didn't know this and ordered a medium spice level, but Maddie's and mine got switched so I was eating mild and my face STILL hurt. The Thai food I'd had the night before was nothing in comparison! The spiced chips (fries) were good, though. I also tried a classic New Zealand soda called L&P, which stands for lemon and Pairoa (Pairoa is a place). It's a lemony soda that kind of reminded me of root beer with the other flavors, but only a little. I recommend it! It's very refreshing. We finished off our delicious meal with a trip to the ice cream shop -- this time I went for boysenberry, another classic NZ ice cream flavor.



That night, we decided to go to the Lava Bar next door. Our room on the second floor directly overlooked the bar porch and the loud dance music had played well into the night the night before, so we might as well have a bit of fun before parting ways! The three of us had a blast, and I tried a New Zealand beer called Tui that had a nice IPA. We chatted, listened to the guy playing on guitar until dance music started around 11pm. Our table was huge, so people came and went and we chatted with them as well. I love bars for people-watching -- watching people try to pick up other people is HILARIOUS.



Eventually we didn't want to burn more money on drinks so we hit the dance floor, and the DJ was AWESOME. Really nice transitions and picking fun songs for dancing, ranging from YMCA to Cotton-Eyed Joe to Keisha. So, so much fun. I was ecstatic to see that Maddie and Charlotte dance like I do -- go nuts and have fun and don't care if you're sweating. We pulled out moves that were never before seen in New Zealand, I guarantee it.



After that, we bailed to the grass outside to cool off before heading back to our unfortunately stuffy room. The circulation was really bad, so we had to choose between open windows and super-loud bar noise or death by heat. Our room chose the former, but it meant I probably got about 3 hours of quality sleep before waking up at 7 to get to my bus by 8. But it was totally worth it! I'm now about an hour outside of Paihia, my final destination on my trip before returning go Auckland. It's situated on the Bay of Islands, north of Auckland, which is rumored to be crazy beautiful. From what I've seen out the windows, the rumors are true. :D

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