Thermal Ambassador Motel Rotorua

... for tea and biscuits, of course, so we were able to do some exploring in the afternoons.<br><br>As Rotorua has many geothermal areas, we decided to go to the Thermal Wonderland to watch the Lady Knox Geyser erupt. Every morning at 10:15, a worker puts soap in the geyser which forces the hot lower water to mix with the cold surface water inside the geyser and creates an eruption, and also bubbles. Without soap, the geyser would still erupt, but it would ...

... knew how to drive an automatic, but had never driven on the left side of the road. Ben ended up driving most of the time, but honestly I don't know why, because Hannah did a lot better of a job at not getting us into a wreck or hitting light posts.<br> The 3 hour trip went by faster than what I thought it would. Even though the weather was a bit dreary, the landscape was ...

... became very popular. <br><br>Freakazoid...because that's what we named him...watched lovingly from afar, before later turning his attentions to one of the boys and falling madly in love with him instead. (Not quite the path I expected the evening to take, but certainly for the best.) Luckily, despite his new interest he seemed to remember me fondly and continued to pay for my drinks until closing time.<br><br>Yep, love was thick in the air and it smelled a lot like rotten eggs...

Our next stop was Rotorua, the geothermal capital of New Zealand. It is a lovely place but smells so bad! It is a volcanic area and this causes hot water pools to bubble out of the ground releasing a stinky sulphur smell. Our hostel had it's own hot pools, one of which stank so bad - it was rotten and made m,e feel ill :( There was a beautiful park nearby which looked quite eerie with autumnal trees and steam rising from the ground. We walked ...

... point the two boys hands shot up once more. Funny how at that age you are so eager to volunteer and then as an adult so reluctant! The village is essentially a reconstruction of how the tribe used to live. We start by looking at the earth oven known as 'the hangi pit' where our New Zealand lamb, chicken, potatoes (rewai), and sweet potato (kumara) are being cooked. This is a slow process taking some three and a half hours. A little voice from the crowd pipes up, "when will ...

... To complete our afternoon of volcanic activity we took a walk past the Ohinemutu church and thermal area, which inspired a run along the lake shore and were often speeded on by the sulphuric smells following us. Back at the YHA we met another South African working in the area, who gave us some further insight into being an expat in kiwi land, before bed. Rotorua was finished with a Gondola trip up the mountain, where we enjoyed the thrill of luging ...

... solid leaf that actually feels like it's made of plastic.  The only way I could tell it wasn't was because I saw him pick it off a living tree.  It even makes good paper as one side is white and holds ink well.   We got to the valley area of the volcanic mountains and saw some more thermal activity in addition to a baby blue pond.  This pond was not a normal pond color.  Just like the lime green pond in the Wai o tapu area had leeched lime from the rocks, this pond ...

... wasn't the right time to see that. Once we had seen everything (including a 40*C natural waterfall), we went and had our own mud baths then all had to have cold showers before we went into the sulpher spas. Luckily after the spa there were hot showers to wash the smell off! Once we were feeling fresh &amp; clean we headed out to a nature park just in time to see the lion feeding whre they feed their pride of 10 Lions from 2yo cubs to 20yo Lions. I got ...

... en si huele muy muy mal, en la lonely planet dice que es olor a huevos podridos pero yo no se si lo definiria asi. El olor viene del sulfato de los geiser y la verdad es que es bastante peculiar. Todas las calles desprenden humo, por cualquier rincon ves salir humo pestilente e incluso algunas areas estan valladas porque el calor es massa. De hecho fuimos a visitar una villa maori y ellos cocinan en esos recintos cerrados, alli plantan la cacerola ...