"Egg sandwich anyone?"

Trip Start Sep 12, 2005
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Trip End Aug 15, 2006


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Flag of New Zealand  ,
Friday, April 21, 2006

After a 4 hour drive form hot water beach we arrived at Rotorua nicknamed the "Sulphur - City" due to the amount of thermal activity here. Having already read this in our guidebook the decision to roll in with our windows down was probably not the best idea we've ever had. As the evil egg smell filled our car and inevitably our nostrils we struggled to avoid the $25 cleaning fee we would have had to fork out for vommitting in the car. After 20 minutes or so with the air-con on full blast we still couldn't cleanse the air so we just had to get used to it.

We checked into a beautiful camp site right on the shores of Lake Rotorua and had a look around town before returning to our favourite pastime...shopping for dinner.

Although there are lots of fun activities to do in Rotorua we decided to leave them until we reached the South Island, where even though they are a bit more expensive we were informed they were much better.

Our main reason, and a certain highlight for being in Rotorua was the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. Wai-O-Tapu meaning "Sacred Waters" is about 30kms south of Rotorura and is the centre point of one of the most volcanically active areas in the world. Inside the park there is a large boiling Champagne pool, craters and blowholes, colourful mineral terraces and the Lady Knox Geyser which spouts off every morning at 10.15am with some prompting from a soap substance. The Geyser was first discovered by some convicts that were stationed nearby. The crooks used to throw a bar of soap into the chamber with their dirty stripes...possibly the first washing machine?

After a good few hours walking through the park taking hundreds of photos (especially of the Champagne pool created as a result of the biggest volcanic eruption of modern times (181 AD) which could actually be seen from Europe) and inhaling the foul smelling fumes we headed back to our car for a cup of tea and surprising a few egg and onion sandwiches! Must have been something in the air. Afterwards we headed to Taupo for our next amazing experience in this amazing country.
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