Rotorua would prove to be the last place that we would visit in New Zealand on this trip at least. We´d hoped to make it to Auckland, but time had been against us and we liked the vibe of both Taupo and Rotorua so much that we spent extra days in both towns.

It is true that Rotorua smells, badly. All of the geothermic activity in the area means that a cloud of sulphur seems to perpetually sit over the town. After a few hours of exposure we were acclimatised and it really didn´t bother us after that.

It rained heavily during our time in Rotorua which curtailed our exploration of the area. Our first stop was the elegant museum which is housed in the old bath house. We learned about the volcanic eruption which destroyed the pink and white terraces, the medicinal uses of thermal and mud baths, the Maori war effort in World War 2, and the corrosive effect of sulphuric gases. All in all it was a pretty good experience, the only detraction being the kiddies Easter egg hunt around the museum.

We´d enjoyed a thermal bath in Taupo, but Gemma wanted more and so we booked an afternoon at the Hells Gate Park, primarily to have a mud bath. The trip started with a tour around the geothermal park with more geysers, bubbling mud pools and boiling water lakes. It was very similar to Orakei Korako, but it was pouring down with rain and we were ill-equipped for it, consequently we were less than enthusiastic about walking around in the rain for an hour. In any event most of the sights were shrouded in steam, made worse by the rain, and we could hardly see anything. After all of that we were happy to get into our own private mud bath for 20 minutes. "Mud bath" is not a very apt description, more like a muddy water bath, there was none of the gloopy mud that we both wanted. After showering the smelly mud off our bodies (or trying to at least) we climbed into a 39c thermal bath for half an hour. The water felt super hot in spite of the rain (both the mud and thermal baths are outdoors) and it was impossible for us to stay in for longer than 30 minutes.

After a good night´s sleep in our campervan we awoke early in the morning to go zorbing, which neither of us had tried before. The first question was whether to take a wet and sliding zorb or a dry and strapped in. We both opted for dry and strapped in as it looked the more thrilling of the possibilities. We took the short trip to the top of the hill, got strapped in one at a time and were released. The world became a blur of green then blue, then green, then blue maybe a dozen times as we hurtled down the hill. It is a most dizzying experience and a totally awesome one. We only did it once and it has the potential to be very addictive.

Zorbing over we set off towards Auckland airport still debating how best to get sulphurous mud out of our bathing suits.