Rotorua

After spending the past few weeks holed up in Auckland, we took to the road last weekend to explore Rotorua. Located about 225km South(ish) of Auckland, near the centre of the North Island, Rotorua is a hub of geothermal activity and Maori culture. For these reasons, it's popular with tourists and is affectionately (or ironically, we're not quite sure) dubbed 'Roto-Vegas' by some of our friends in Auckland. We learned that Rotoruans have embraced the nickname as we drove into town past the Roto-Vegas motel. It might not be quite as glitzy as the Las Vegas strip, but we still rather wish we'd gotten to stay here.

The second thing that we noticed upon entering Rotorua was the smell. Due to the rampant geothermal activity and constant release of hydrogen sulphide, the whole town smells like rotten eggs/flatulence. Before we left, some of our Auckland friends had suggested that we instead just stay in Auckland for the weekend. They offered to do some cultural dancing for us and 'fart a lot', assuring us that it would be just like we were in Rotorua. They weren't really exaggerating. However, our olfactory nerves got used to the sulphur smell quickly, and it turns out that the odor comes with some pretty neat perks. Pockets of steam rise from the earth throughout the town, making it look much like a mystical wonderland in some spots. There is also an abundance of hot pools, and some hotels even boast hot pools in every room (we will definitely need to make a return visit to confirm that this is true).

Our first morning was spent walking around a public park filled with pockets of steam, boiling water, and bubbling mud. It feels a bit strange having Autumn in May, but it was a treat to be surrounded by fall colours (much better than Calgary's annual leaf change).

This lake was not boiling.

We loved this covered bridge.

Justin realized that he hadn't worked out for a few days and decided to do some chin-ups while Emma ate a pastry.

We'll get to the boiling mud shortly. But aren't the red leaves beautiful?

Mystical steam. Feel free to scroll through the next few photos if you find mystical stream boring.

Spot the Pukeko (a common NZ bird).

Justin lets off some steam when he thinks nobody is watching.

It really came back to get him.

A pool of bubbling mud.

More steam.

A steaming lake. The hospital can just be seen in the background, conveniently located for errant swimmers.

After feeling like we got a pretty good free show at the public park, we decided to upgrade and pay to visit a fancy thermal park. Justin was set on seeing a geyser, so we headed to Te Puia thermal park, which has a 15 meter geyser that erupts 2-3 times per hour. Entry to the park was a bit steep ($50 each), but we decided that we'd splurge on it, given all of the free entertainment that we'd already had that morning.

We'd been told that putting dish soap into a geyser causes it to erupt, and that the Rotorua geysers don't actually erupt on their own accord. Instead, they get fed with dishsoap whenever an eruption is required. However, the geyser at Te Puia was going off constantly during the 30-40 minutes that we watched it, and we certainly didn't see any dish soap being thrown in.

Needless to say, we were quite mesmerized by it.

The remainder of the park featured a couple of kilometers of walking tracks, and scattered hot springs and boiling mud pools.

This perma-boiling hot pool is used for cooking food. The food goes in a flax bag which is tied to the rope and then submerged. We might have to get one of these when we buy a house!

We made a quick stop at the local Marai, or temple.

Te Puia is also the home to weaving and woodworking colleges, and we were able to see some of the artists-in-training at work. We thought it would be a bit weird to take photos of them working, but here is a work in progress.

Justin also got up close and personal with a completed carving.

The smell of eggs had made us hungry, so our next stop was the Pig & Whistle pub for lunch. This place deserves a special mention, because it was amazing.

If you ever go to Rotorua and do not stop here, you are cheating yourself! The food was second to none. We started out with their house beer: The Swine Lager (pretty tasty), and then moved on to the Moroccan lamb sandwich (Justin) and a spicy chicken salad (Emma). It was by far the best meal we ate in Rotorua. It doesn't hurt that they have a lovely tented and heated patio out the back.We strongly considered going back for dinner, but eventually decided against it only because we were anxious to try several other restaurants during our time in Rotorua.

After lunch, we headed a couple of kilometers out of town to go Zorbing. At the time, we thought that we were doing an exciting and cutting edge new activity, but Emma has since seen Zorbs utilized in a One Direction video and so we've realized that they're actually quite basic. Apparently, Zorbing was invented in Rotorua 17 years ago, and if you haven't heard of it, the premise is pretty much rolling down a hill inside of a massive beach ball. You can either do this strapped into a harness inside the ball (so that you don't bounce around too much), or free inside the ball with some water (to avoid friction rub).

At the Zorb liftee's suggestion, we chose the water option. If you're wondering how much we enjoyed it, we'll let the following footage of Justin speak for itself:

Here's a look at Emma's Zorb from the outside:

We thought we'd pack just a bit more tourism into our day and made a late afternoon visit to the Polynesian Spa.

No geothermal town is complete without some hot springs, and the Rotoruans know how to capitalize on all of the local volcanic activity. There's some sort of hot pools everywhere you look, but the Polynesian Spa came highly recommended, so we decided to try it out. Admission provided us with entry into about 8 different pools, all of which afforded a view of the slightly sulphur-y and seagull-ridden lake Rotorua (it was actually quite nice).

The pools are all different temperatures, and contain water from a few different local springs. One spring was described as containing 'acidic water and a mix of minerals that erode concrete'. Because of this erosive effect, the pool lining was made of rubber. We were slightly apprehensive, but we're happy to report that our skin remains intact. Another pool was described as having an 'alkaline pH that makes skin feel smooth'. It comes from a spring that is supposed to bless all bathers with ageless beauty. So, if you ever see us again and we look fantastic, you'll know why.

Because we only had one full day to spend in Rotorua, we decided that we'd better be very productive and get in a short pub crawl after the hot springs. At Justin's insistence, we made our way to the Lava Bar aka "Rotorua's #1 Party Bar", which just so happens to be attached to the local hostel. We were the only people there for a while, most likely due to the fact that it was 5:30pm (we are getting old, aren't we?). We then moved on to an Irish pub, where we were told that they were about to start their weekly Pub Quiz (a game where teams of 2+ people try to answer trivia on several different topics in order to win a bar tab). We decided that it could be fun to play, and signed up. We soon realized that most of the other teams were retired locals, who moonlight as semi-professional Pub Quizzers. Needless to say, we came last (like dead, dead last), but the locals generously agreed that we would have done well if there had been more questions relating to Canada and less relating to rugby. We moved on to wallow in our loss at a craft brew pub, unsurprisingly called Brew. They had lots of interesting beers on tap, including a chili chocolate porter and a lavender-infused ale.

We had a little bit of an Unexpected Journey on our way home. More to come on that soon!