Rotorua

The weather forecast for our three days in Rotorua was pretty grim: nearly all of New Zealand is in the grip of a huge swathe of rain, and we were right in the thick of it. Nevertheless, we decided that we should go out and explore the volcanic activity in the area, as this was after all what we’d come here for.

First thing to note about Rotorua is the smell. It whiffs. It pongs. It is everywhere, although it seems to come and go in gusts…but there’s always that background level of smell. You get used to it.

We drove about 27km south to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, which has a geyser that is set off artificially every day at 1015. We didn’t need to make an early start, but got on the road to make sure we could find it and be there in plenty of time, both of which we achieved with the minimum of fuss. The rain was coming and going in waves, but never completely stopped. We got our tickets to the whole park, including the geyser, and waited around n the light drizzle waiting for the show to begin. As it did, the rain got substantially heavier, and we all got somewhat soaked. The guide told the story of how the geyser had first been discovered by prisoners (it was on the site of an old open prison) and they’d used the hot water pool for washing their clothes. The soap they’d used had broken the surface tension of the pool and caused the geyser to erupt, distributing their laundry over a wide area. Nowadays they seed the geyser with an eco-friendly surfactant which has the same effect, and causes the geyser to erupt.

Who's this geyser?

Thoroughly drenched, we repaired to the café for refreshment and waited for the rain to ease off a little. This it duly did, and we went for a wander around the rest of the park, where that are various pools craters, and assorted deposits and other signs of volcanic activity. We were fortunate that the rain held off for most of the time, and only really set in again heavily when we were just on the last leg, so we rather rushed past those, and headed back to the café for a warming hot chocolate, and a trawl around the gift shop, whilst trying to dry out a bit.

This is where the café gets the hot chocolate from

On the way out, we drove past the mud pools, the final part of the tour. As it was starting to rain again, we decided to give it a miss, and this was vindicated as a truly torrential downpour then ensued as we made our way back to central Rotorua. By the time we got there we were pretty hungry, and we selected Fat Dog Café more or less at random – a good choice, as it turned out, and we had a substantial lunch there. We then set out in search of the fabled Rotorua t-shirt (all the gift shops we’d encountered so far only stocked general New Zealand t-shirts – I was after something more specific!) and had a walk around the Government Gardens, which contain some hot bubbling pools and a now-defunct geyser.

Cute baby pukeko in the Government Gardens