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Published: March 27th 2015
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Morning everyone, just couldn't do my blog last night, too tired, went to bed early. Well yesterday, woke up and the smell of sulphur here is so strong, you just can't get away from it, it really is over powering. Well we decided to visit 'The living Maori Village' called Whakarewarewa, short for 'Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao' it's hard enough typing it, let alone saying it !!! She got us to say it after her, well it really didn't work !! The village have been having visitors since the 1800's, they have bubbling mud pools, boiling mineral springs and we can see what they call the 'Prince of Wales' geyser from the village. So we met our guide who still lives in the village, she said a lot of people have now moved into the city but she stayed, she explained to us how they still use underground cooking and pulled off the top from looked like pallets and there was this meat and potatos cooking in the natural steam vents and corn on the cob boiling in the water, ohhhhh, we thought we'll try some of that when we're finished here. She showed us where they bathe and that everyone in the family
gets naked and bathes together but the young ones from the city now find it embrassing so they get in with a towel and then take it off !! I see what she mean's, don't think I could put our nieces and nephew through that, they would be traumatised for life !!!! They use old clothes for the plugs to the baths as everthing else would just rot due to the sulpher, honestly I cannot tell you how bad these smells were, rotten eggs all the time. We saw the a couple of geysers shoot up, they are called the Pohutu (Big Splash) and Prince of Wales Feathers, something to do with him visiting at the time and for the life of me can't remember which Prince, I'll come back to you on that one !! On average they erupt at least once every hour. We then went to see a performance where they were in their dress and they danced and sang to us. It really was very good, throughly enjoyed it and having the guide was excellent, apparently their guides through time have been enormously respected, there was a lot of history on them. So we went off
to their cafe and tried a 'Hangi Pie, oh my, it was delicious, the beef just fell apart and there were different types of potatoes inside, it sure beats you're 'Fray Bentos' !!!
From there we went to 'Hells Gate' which was about 15 km out of Rotorua, this is where they have the mud pools and mineral baths. Stu and I went off and looked at all the different natural pools, amazing to see, stinky of course, but some of these pools were just acid and temperatures of up to 144 degrees, I don't think there is anything else like it in the world. Stu does his funny bit, you get in one first and then I'll follow !! NOT EVEN FUNNY !! There was 50 acres of these rumbling and steaming geothermal pools, in some parts you couldn't see anything except steam, there were lots of Maroi stories, apparently the playwright George Bernard Shaw looked at it and said it was like the gates of Hell, therefore given the name of 'Hells Gate'. Pretty amazing. We then went over to the Mud pools, Stu said he didn't want to get in, couldn't see the point in putting
mud all over you, so I got changed and went in, this is the only place you can do the mud pools in a natural environment otherwise they are too extreme. The Maori's have been using this method for over 800 years, for healing and revitalising and the mud come's from 'their medicine lake'. You are only allowed 20 minutes in them, due to the fact, the mud which contains various minerals takes out the bad toxins in you and puts good ones back, but any longer and then the whole process reverses. It also ruins any jewellery you wear and swimwear as I have now found out as I forgot to take off a silver ring !! I have carefully 'SELECTED' some photos of me in mud, bearing in mind, did not wish to put you off you're breakfast or dinner !!! The mud pool was nice and then I popped into the mineral pool, my skin felt so nice afterwards, but all I wanted to do was go to sleep but Stu said, come on we've got other things to see in Rotorua, really just leave me lying down somewhere, I was just 'zapped out' from that mud
!!! So we wandered around and saw Lake Rotorua, more geothermal pools but these were pushing up the road and pavements which looked a bit dodgy to me, bearing in mind there is an active volcano underneath and the stinky smell was everywhere, I really don't know how people live with it, I could never get used to that.
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