This place is not nick-named "Fartopolis" for nothing. Thank goodness we camped several kilometres outside of Rotorua last night. We had envisioned staying the day here, and possibly even taking advantage of some free thermal baths that the town offered. We toured the museum first and got the whole history of the place which was very interesting, but it boggles the mind that people have been living here with this oppressive smell for that long. The baths have alleged healing powers and people came from far and wide to be cured. We were told one the cure for obesity which consisted of baths intermingled with being strapped to a chair and shaken violently. Baebs thought that sitting some chubby b***** down by one of the wretched pools would have sufficed, stifling even the hungriest of hungers.

It was fascinating to see boiling hot water and mud bubbling up from the earth, but the smell of sulphur and hydrogen sulphide did us in. At least we had some great laughs and ate a little bit less that day ourselves.

My stomach turned in the car for the better part of 2 hours after leaving Rotorua. Needless to say, we didn't take advantage of the well used and slightly mildewey public baths either. Baebs had come up with the brilliant idea of taping a piece of bacon or some fresh bread under our noses to hide the smell but in the end we opted to just hit the road.