Rotorua stinks!! Literally! It stands upon a bundle of volcanic activity and the earths magma below is boiling, creating bubbling mud pools, and steaming pools in a variety of colours, orange, green and grey on the earths surface. There is a rotten eggy smell that descends upon the whole town, steam rises up out of the drains on the road and the whole town sits in a crater made by a volcano. You might say it's an unusual place and you'd be right. The first day we went to the Hells Gate mud pools, suitably named by George Bernard Shaw. There were lots of natural steaming pools behind us that were too hot to go into. Back in the day Rotorua's hot springs were said to have healing powers and people would come from all over the world to bathe in the pools. We saw the old bath house, which is now the museum, which had a variety of old medical instruments in the bathing rooms which probably did absolutely nothing. The museum showed a film on the now named "Buried village". On the 10th June 1886 (I think). A volcano erupted and destroyed one of the Maori villages, killing 120 people, you can still see the remains of the village today. At this site was also the white and pink terraces. These were many naturally made hot spring pools, that gradually cascaded down on a slope, hard to explain, but it looked beautiful and was often called the eighth wonder of the world. However the volcano also wiped this out. The museum featured another film on the Maori men that went to war in WW2 as volunteers, and after the war ended had a reputation as some of the most elite combat troops. We spent the day at Wai-O-Tapu 'thermal wonderland' there are lots of them in Rotorua. Basically it is a natural area of mud pools and boiling green and orange pools as a result of the volcanic activity in the area. It was like a different planet. It is all completely natural (so why I have to pay $25 to see nature I don't know!). This thermal wonderland was slightly different because as well as the thermal area they had a geyser that apparently went off at 10:15 everyday. I was curious about the precise time, as surely nature is not so exact. All my questions were answered when a staff member came over at 10:15 and emptied the contents of a brown paper bag down the geyser. He explained the geyser naturally had a cycle of 2-48hrs for 'erupting', so they pour a bag of soap down it to break the pressure which forces the geyser to erupt. Which I thought was a bit of a shame as everything else is in its natural state and it would add to the fun not knowing if it would erupt or not. Anyway watching it go was brilliant. It initially was just smoking away and then water just shot right up in the air and it got higher and higher, it had such power, we've got some good photos. Rotarua is also the place to learn about Maori culture and there are many concerts where you can watch the haka and eat hangi. Rotorua is the place where every tourist goes but it was definitely worth the visit.