Smelly Thermal Undies

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  Rotorua, New Zealand
Thursday, April 6, 2006

Rotorua, like Taupo is a firm fixture on the NZ tourist trail, attracting visitors from all over the world to marvel at the geothermic activity, and experience the Maori culture. Rotorua is situated on around numerous sites of geothermic activity, with countless hot water springs, mud pools, and geysers. Natures version plumbing and hot water naturally attracted the Maoris when they first settled on NZ, with water hot enough to cook food in, and bathe in, they were not put off by the smell. Unfortunately due all the volcanic activity underground, and underground thermal currents, the geysers and mud pools are created by a build of underground gas and this is it's means of escape. Alas the gas normally contains sulphur and a mixture of other noxious gasses which will assault you in the street.

With natural wonders, and local Maori cultures, it is no surprise that it has developed into a big tourist attraction, with the Kiwis doing what they normally do where you find lots of backpackers, they create extreme activities. After skydiving yesterday I arrived in Rotorua with Greta (who chickened out of doing a sky dive) and to celebrate sampled the nightlife, which was abundant, and cheap. Avoiding the British nationalist pub, we spent a nice evening getting drunk. This meant that in the morning I was in no fit state to roll down a hill in an inflatable hamster ball (ZORBING), the pouring rain didn't inspire me either. After a breakfast of pancakes, I was feeling more human, and we decided to venture to Te Puia, to see the Maoris and the mud pools and geysers which were very handily grouped together at Te Puia.

Donning her magic raincoat Greta and I set off for the bus, somehow Greta's raincoat had been blessed with special powers because every time she wore it the rain stopped. A nice bit of sunshine as we arrive at Te Puia, just in time for the Maori cultural show. The show consisted of a lot dancing and chest slapping and sticking out of tongues in a bid to look scary and fierce, performing many native dances including the Haka.

This was cool, and didn't last too long due to Maori custom everyone was asked to take off their shoes, and the people sitting near mine were definitely looking a little queasy. Departing the sweaty fetid are of the whare (gathering hut) we ventured out into the eggy sulphurous air of the thermal park. Witnessing a geyser in full flow we immediately thought how fortunate we were, the fact it continued to spurt for the next hour didn't detract from its majesty and power. Gushing gallons of water over 3m into the New Zealand sky. We only saw one of the geysers being active but the rest of the park was filled with Bubbling mud pools, spitting globules of mud around, and gurgling like babies. The most impressive covered an area the size of a basketball court, and was on different levels, with banks of mud being formed where mud was continuously spat in one place. After seeing plenty of hyperactive mud, and boiling water. I got my arm twisted into going to the "Kiwi Encounter", Greta being a holidaymaker rather than a backpacker was keen to spend many and do things, and she couldn't go to NZ without seeing it's trademark stupid bird. Much like the koala in Oz the kiwi bird developed in an environment without predators, and so has evolved to being pretty useless, with it's wings being reduced over time to about 5cm, it cannot fly and had no need to until the Europeans introduced stoats, ferrets and weasels, to control the rabbit and possum population, which had been introduced by the Europeans. Finding the big, fat, stupid and tasty birds a lot easier to catch. The kiwi population fell, and the rabbit and possum population continued unabated, D'oh. So I got to see the daft bird live, and it was cool, although I was surprised that the conservation program involved stealing eggs from the nest.

A quick gondola ride later, and I was on the bus again heading to Whakatane and White Island, depending on the weather...

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