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Exploding geysers, mud pools and bad smells!!
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Like no other place on earth!
17/02/05 We had reduced the amount of time we had in the North Island to 10 days to give ourselves more time in the South. Unfortunately that meant it was a bit of a rush to see all that we wanted. We drove from the Bay of Islands to Roturua which took most of the day. We arrived early evening to check into the hostel. Roturua is nicknamed 'Sulphur City' because of the energetic thermal activity, the most in NZ. There are bubbling mud pools, hot springs, many geysers and some pretty awful rotten egg smells. In many parts of the town you can see steam rising out of the ground at the side of the road. Due to the natural hot springs, most of the accommodation have their own spa pools. On our first night we visited the Polynesian Spa pools, which has been open since 1886 - thankfully its been renovated since then! This place has several pools at the lakes edge which range in temperature from 34°C to 43°C. When we went there it was quiet and relaxing as we watched the sun set over Lake Roturua.
18/02/05 Roturua is well equipped with activities for tourists. As we had only one full day we chose carefully. Starting off with the Luge, a sledge on wheels which you shoot downhill on a concrete track. You take a gondola ride up Mount Ngongotahu for a panoramic view of the lake area before flying down one of the three tracks, returning each time on a chair lift. On our last time up the chairlift, Julie lost a flip-flop! This was great because we got a extra free ride back down to find it, a little embarrassing though! Next we went to the Maori Arts & Crafts Institute and Thermal Reserve. Here we saw a replica Maori village and at the Thermal Reserve, we witnessed the spectacular Pohutu Geyser which spurts hot water about 20m into the air. There were some other geysers and lots of bubbling mud pools too. This took up about a good 3 hours of our day and was very enjoyable.
Next we went Zorbing!! This is one of those crazy NZ invented adrenaline activities, we climbed inside an inflated double plastic sphere, cold water was added and then we rolled downhill for about 150m, like a human wash cycle! We screamed and laughed the whole way down. At the bottom there was a bank to stop us, but we were going so fast that we rolled most of the way up the bank and back down again, we didn't know which way was up! Once we came to a stop, they opened the hatch and we spilled out onto the grass giggling like kids! If this activity ever comes to Scotland it will definitely replace Irn Bru as a hangover cure!
From here we headed to 'Hell's Gate', a highly active thermal area NE of Roturua. Unfortunately we didn't find it as good as it sounded. After our long day we took advantage of the free thermal spa at the caravan park where we stayed that night. More thumbnails ...
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