Smelly Place
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2006
1
49
52
Trip End
Ongoing
Roturua,
New Zealand
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Roturua is located on sulphur pits and near lots of geothermal activity. Probably due to the volcanos that litter the area. This place is a wee funky hub of activity. There is also a lot of maori cultural stuff here. We headed to a Maori village which is located next to the thermal pools and had a look at village life and they put on a wee show which included the haka. Spot On. After having some corn on the cob, boiled in a thermal pool. (Doesn't actually make it taste better just the novelty manner a cob being cooked at 100+ degrees)
There was a place called Hell's Gate which we had to go visit. (That means me) Aparently some famous guy said it looked like Dante's description of Hell and called it Hell's Gate.
A wee panorama of hell
Place was great, we indulged in a thermal mud bath and a dip in the sulphur pool.They have a go-kart track with a difference here. Its called a Luge. Basically you start at the top of a hill and let gravity pull you down. Pretty hair raising but good clean family fun. They have zorbs (big plastic balls you go inside and roll yourself down a hill). but I'll save that for my next visit!!
I had my first curry in Rotarua for months (utterly fantastic, chicken tika Jalfreizi, garlic nan and some rice, cannae beat it!!) Plus some beer called Taj Mahal. Goes well with Indian food in a pilsner sort of way (Probably cause it is). You may have noticed that I've not had a wee beer review for a while. I'm leaving that for a later update to truly try as many of then as I can fine. So far I've found a favourite and discovered some real pish water.
Anyway I'm off to Napier and some Wineries and a gawk at the coast.
Sweet As Bro
Shaun
