Stop 14: Rotorua

Sorry its a little late but the travels continue.

The next day I headed out on a short bus ride to Rotorua, known for its geothermal activity. The town smells TERRIBLY of sulfur. I don’t know how people live there. A pizza sounded really good so I got a $5 Dominoes pizza and managed to eat it all by myself (oops). It was still raining, but I did my best to walk around a little bit. 

Hot Springs

more hot springs

Some geothermal activity with a rainbow in the background (look at the trees).

They had a floating Rotorua thing. It looked fairly new so the plants hadn't really grown in yet.

That night I did a Maori cultural experience. The Maori are the indigenous people here and their culture is really integrated into society. They fought really hard when the Europeans came and earned equal rights. The Maori language is everywhere and is still a thriving spoken language as here. This cultural experience is an evening devoted to their history and get a feel for what their villages feel/felt like. 

 

Other than the dolphins, it was probably one of the coolest things I did during my travels. You start off with the Maori introduction between tribes which is one of the craziest things ever. Their traditional facial expression includes tongues sticking out and eyes bulging. It’s pretty impressive when you see them do it. Then they have different stations explaining their carving techniques, the history of their facial tattoos (tattoos are REALLY common here because of that), war training techniques and weaving. I’m glad I did it more towards the end because it really tied in all the history I had already learned. They then did a show for us with traditional songs and dances, including the Haka. Earlier they had taught us how to do it, but it was really impressive to see the pros do it. For those of you who don’t know, the Haka has become famous because the All Blacks (NZ Rugby team) do the Haka before every game, as they used to do it to prepare for battle. 

Traditional Maori attire. The women have tattoos on their chin and the men have them covering their whole face.

We were then fed a feast cooked in the ground using all the geothermal heat, called a hangi. I ate WAY too much food, but it was so amazing. The only thing I didn’t like were the potatoes because they tasted very strongly of the sulfur from the ground. We then had an absolutely HYSTERICAL bus ride home and it hurt to laugh so hard with such a full stomach. Our driver was a riot and had each country on the bus pick a song to sing. Then he started singing “She’ll be coming round the mountain” as he started into a roundabout and continued around the roundabout until the song was over. It reminded me of my dad doing the same thing when we were in Paris. Then he had us sing the wheels on the bus and proceeded to do everything the song indicated, including honking the entire way down a street around 10pm.

Pulling our dinner out of the ground.

The next morning I went to Wai-o-tapu Thermal Area. I met an American lady on the bus and also ran into an Aussie I had met the night before. First we went to see a geyser, but were really disappointed when we saw they triggered the geyser. The American kept talking about how much better Yellowstone is and now I really want to go even more. The rest of the park wasn’t as exciting as I had expected but there were some pretty cool colors here and there. Some of the trees were red or yellow from the sulfur covering them which was pretty cool. I came back completely exhausted for some reason and took a nap. 

mud pools. They made such fun noises

Red on the hillsides from the minerals

The trees were just coated in yellow

This was the craziest color green and the picture doesn't do it justice. Tilt your screen until its neon and then you are close to the right color.

Then I headed to the Redwoods per a recommendation from a yacht designer I had talked to. It was suggested I take a bike for the bike trails. Was that an experience or what? I’ve never really driven a bike on roads before and throw in traffic laws I’m not used to and I was shocked I made it to the redwoods in one piece. Already exhausted when I got there, I ended up walking my bike up some massive hills to the bike trails. I ended up running into the Australian guy again crazily enough, but he was heading out of the park. I figured I should go easy on my knees and only stick to the easy trails (also the bike I rented wasn’t equipped for anything more), but about 15 seconds into the trail I chose I thought there was no way this was an easy trail. I was expecting a nice stroll through the woods, but no, this was a proper mountain biking trail with hills and curves. I’m convinced I’m on the wrong trail, worried about the bike staying in one piece and wondering what I got myself into. Everywhere in NZ has been incredibly well marked and this one the one park that wasn’t. I hit a fork in the road and a sign said “trail continues” and then didn’t tell me which way to go (and these were one way trails). Fortunately a runner was coming through and directed me. About 20 seconds later, he was out of sight, which tells you how slow I was going on the bike. 

I then got onto a part of the trail that was even more difficult and I thought for sure I was going to destroy the bike. I came out on a trail completely lost, asked for directions and got sent the wrong way, but eventually, I made it home. I was completely exhausted, my butt was sore, but my knees probably had a good workout and it was a good experience.

The next day I went to the Rotorua museum, which was an old geothermal bathhouse. It was pretty cool and they had this show on the volcanic history in the area and the seats and everything shook along with it. There was also a really neat nature photography exhibit that I could have looked at for forever. I spent the afternoon shopping for pants for my job interview the next day. It proved incredibly difficult, but just when I was about to give up, I peaked around a corner by my hostel and found a store called Just Jeans. JACKPOT (I had decided I wanted black jeans). Then I caught the bus out of town.