Rotorua: Thermal Wonderland

On our bus journey to Rotorua, we got our first glimpse of the fantastic scenery of New Zealand. So green, mountain after mountain and unspoilt land absolutely breathtaking!To get a true taste of New Zealand , you have to experience small town life as there are more of these than big cities here.

Rotorua was one of those small sleepy towns with a large population of Maori people and home to lots of geothermal activity and the town definitely had a difference. As soon as you arrive in Rotorua you notice a real rotten egg smell in the air caused by sulphur from the thermals. Locals have nicknamed it 'Sulphur City'.

The earths crust around Rotorua is so thin that gasses and heat from inside the earths layers, bubble up through rivers, lakes and mud pools, and hiss out of holes in the ground. There was a gardens area which had a lot of thermal activity but to see the best examples you had to travel 70km south to an area called Wairakei so we hired a car and went on our way.

First stop, Kerosene Creek, a thermal river and small waterfall. Its a bit off the beaten track so we had the place to ourselves. It was so weird, it looked like any normal river winding through the bush, but a quick dip of your toes and you realise its as hot as a freshly run bath. When we got out, we even got that dizzy feeling you get when getting out a hot bath.

Further down the road we visited one of the largest thermal mud pools in New Zealand. Now this place was even stranger, it was like something from out of this world. The mud pool was the same size as a decent garden swimming pool and every few inches, hot gasses and steam belched out of the mud. In some areas the mud was thicker so more gas would build up and then all of a sudden burst out about 9ft high in the area.

It was time to get out of the eggy smell and get some fresh air so we headed for Rainbow Mountain, further south in the Wairakei region. At the base of the mountain there was two lakes, one emerald green and one turquoise blue, coloured by a high concentration of minerals. Rainbow Mountain was named this due to the colourful rock faces, most of which was bright red.

As we climbed up we noticed small holes in the rock with more steam and gasses escaping, signs that this mountain is still fairly volcanic. After a tiring walk we reached the top and there was a little hut with a man inside which was a surprise. The man came out and greeted us, and invited us into his hut to get an even better view. The man was a fire watcher and his job was literally to view the horizon for smoke and report any fires. Quite a lonely job but he seemed happy. He told us we were only the second set of people to reach the top that day, which made us feel chuffed.

On our way down we heard rustling in the bushes, thought it was another bird, but suddenly out jumped a wild dog which looked really skinny and tall like a dingo. We grabbed a stick and marched on quick too scared to look back. Luckily he didn't chase us.

Finally when we made it down there was a nice note in our car from the friendly fire watcher wishing us a good holiday with a few tips of best places to visit (he must have guessed that was our car as it was the only one left by this time). In general we found the New Zealanders or Kiwi's how they call themselves (after the mythical Kiwi bird) really friendly and proud of their country.

We woke up early next morning for a drive to Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, an hours drive from Rotorua. The drive there was very scenic and for miles at a time we were the only car on the road, it really is a real pleasure driving here it's so quiet, (NZ is similar size to UK but with population of only 4 million). Tauranga is another coastal town which sits protruding out into the bay with a beach either side. Sticking out even further as if on a separate island lies Mount Maunganui. There were some amazing views to be had so we climbed Maunganui, dodging sheep on the way. The weather was changeable too, sunny one minute, gusty and rainy the next. It felt good to complete it in less then 2 hours though and we rewarded ourselves with another fish and chips (or "fush and chups" how Kiwi's say it hahaha) on the way back. They really do say some words funny, one day the housekeeper was saying to two German guys to "strup the bead", they where so confused and looked at us for help but we had no clue what she was saying, later we found out she meant "strip the bed".
Driving back to Rotorua we went a different route through the land of the Kiwi fruit and stopped at a plantation. We decided to get away from the cooking tonight and head out on the town for the evening. It wasn't particularly busy but we enjoyed a few places sampling a local wine or two, a lamb carvery and a live band.