Sorry for the late blog. It's been a busy week but here it is...
Rotorua was definitely the smelliest place we have ever been but also the most unique! Due to there being a volcano under Rotorua (which scared me a little), the place is filled with geothermal activity and bubbling mud pools... It also smells of egg due to all the sulphur! It was quite surreal just wandering around and seeing water bubbling through the pavement and steam appearing to come from nowhere.
We only had one full day there but managed to pack it full. After exploring in the morning, and having a free foot soak in a natural hot pool, we went to Whakarewera, a Maori village full of geothermal activity. It was quite commercialised but we were able to find out some more about the Maori culture which was really interesting. We also got some amazing corn on the cobs cooked in a geothermal pool and saw some pretty cool geysers (areas where water randomly shoots out due to the pressure- not 'geezers'). We finished our day with a walk through a giant Redwood Forest which made even Sim look small and we got a pretty cool view over Rotorua too.
The day was ended perfectly. They have a Thursday night market with SO much yummy food, craft stools and buskers so we decided to treat ourselves to dinner there. We then met up with our friends Amy and Phil who were also there for a beer :)