Rotorua was our next destination, the bubbling & steaming volcanic heart of North Island. After a fairly comfortable drive up from Napier through Lake Taupo where we didn't linger as we'd been there 2 months previously we arrived in what is, along with Iceland, probably the most geothermally active area on the planet. What an incredible place. As you drive along the road, it's like anywhere else in NZ, native podocarp forests, mountains etc BUT there's steam everywhere rising out of the bushes and there's the SMELL - it's sort of like bad eggs but not so unpleasant & you get used to it. And you have to, as absolutely everywhere for miles around smells like it. The earth's crust is so thin here that they can't even bury the dead. If you dig a hole, it can be positively dangerous - steam, hot water, superheated sulphurous fumes might come out of it so they have to bury their dead in concrete tombs above ground ! !

Now our first experience of a thermal pool - Butcher's Field. In the middle of a field, surrounded by pastures & sheep - you could be anywhere in New Zealand or even Europe. No sign posts to find it - only locals & the more adventurous tourists like us manage to find it. It's about the size of our swimming pool in Vaux - but green & sulfurous & hot, very hot and it bubbles. And it's like this all the year round and it's free to anyone who wants to use it.So we had our first soak in a thermal pool - very pleasant & very relaxing.

Next day we visited Rotorua where you have the most amazing sights. The Tudor style Spa House with croquet and crown green bowling lawns in front of it - so very very BRITISH - except for the steam and fumes from the boiling thermal pools which are absolutely everywhere. We found the same thing in Kuirau Park where you have manicured grass, european trees (including a huge horse chestnut tree with conkers on the ground as of course it's the beginning of autumn here) and a place that really does feel like you're in England. It is like Heaton Park in Newcastle - except for the fact that all over the park are dotted steaming pools of mud, blue boiling water, black boiling water, green boiling water and absolutely everywhere the SMELL of hydrogen sulphide. It's here that about 6 months ago some hyper-active 8 year old kid jumped over the wooden fence in front of one of the pools, slipped, fell in & boiled himself alive.

Next on our list was Te Puia where we saw the biggest & most active geyser in Rotorua. Superheated water jetting 30m into the air + any number of brightly coloured steaming geothermal pools.This also included a "cooking pool" where clear blue water permanently boils and the local maoris cook their food - what they call a "hangi" - a sort of geothermal barbecue. And it was all just on the edge of town - some people even have pools of boiling sulfurous mud steaming at the end of their garden ! ! !The weather was poor with intermittent rain but the sights were so amazing we didn't care.

We camped for a couple of nights outside town near to a place called Rotomahana - where until 1886 there had been what was considered the 8th Wonder of the World. The Pink & White Terraces of Rotomahana. Hot geothermal springs had created a huge system of terraces, one briiliant white the other pink where water cascaded down through a series of naturally formed "baths" getting ever cooler until it reached the lake below. It's worth "Googling" to see the old black & white photos which are the only remains of this magical place after a violent volcanic erruption in June 1886 wiped it off the face of the planet for ever & it's now broken to pieces buried underashsomewhere at the bottom of the lake which the erruption created.

Then, on our last evening in Rotorura, only 15 mins from our campsite we went for a dip in another thermal pool at "Kerosene Creek" - this time not a steaming bubbling pool but a rapid flowing river complete with water fall where the hot geothermal spring feed into the river and creates a naturally heated "theme pool". It's a bit like a "Wet & Wild" pool - but not man made !

Next day as we left Rotorua we went mountain biking in the forests that surrround the town and as we only had 10 days or so before we come home, we managed to sell our bikes for a very good price to the bike hire company in Rotorua and avoid the problem/worry of having to bring them back to Auckland to sell back to the shop where we had bought them 11 weeks earlier. It was a good deal. We've had brand new bikes which we've used for nearly 3 months and it only cost us the equivalent of hiring a bike for 3 days - but we miss them hanging off the back of the van !