Rotorua: The City that Reeks of Sulfur, But is Still Pretty Sweet

We got into Rotorua about 6pm and got picked up pretty quickly after that to go to the Tamaki Village which was this Maori cultural presentation and traditional hangi dinner where the food is cooked from steam from heated volcanic rock put in a ditch dug in the ground. It was actually a much better event than I thought it would be, it started off with a challenge from the warriors to see if our group should enter the village, and then you get to walk around the village for a bit and go to different huts where you learn how they lived before Europeans invaded the place. They wore all the traditional clothes and face tattoos and everything, it was really well done. Then we went into a bigger hut and they did a singing and dancing presentation which was awesome. They don’t use any instruments except some drums, and they really do create some beautiful music. They have great harmony and make some awesome songs with lots of stamping, clapping, and singing. They also did the Haka, a traditional dance that is better known as the dance that the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team does before they play every match. Then we got to go eat a really good dinner, it was a buffet of everything you could want (chicken, fish, lamb, stuffing, salad, vegetables, cranberry sauce…), it was a bit like thanksgiving. They also had pavlova at the end for dessert and then a few more songs to end the night. I feel like the Maoris here are much better off than the Aboriginals in Australia, they seem to be much more a part of society and all seem to have jobs are not living in such poverty. You see the Maoris around the cities and they all seem to be pretty happy and doing fine, in Australia I hardly saw any Aboriginals, but I hear there are tons of them up north just living in really bad conditions with bad education and lots of alcoholism and not much being done about it. It was just interesting to me to see how different it is for at least the Maoris that I met or saw around the places I visited.

The next day I got picked up to go whitewater sledging on the Kaituna(?) river. It was sweet, it’s like whitewater rafting except you are on a boogie board type thing and you have fins and you go through all the rapids like that. It is definitely more scary than rafting through rapids, its just crazier, but it was so much fun. It was only an hour, I would have liked to go longer, but they can only do part of the river because there are huge waterfalls that you would die if you went down them on the river sledge. They also raft the river, and the highest rafted waterfall is on that trip, it’s 7 meters and we saw one of the boats go down it and flip over, it was pretty funny. People were stuck under it and floating away, it was chaotic. Ended up fine though, they were really quick in getting everyone back in. This rafting company looked like the coolest place ever to work, everyone was so chilled out, they hang out in this building and just blast reggae from these speakers with big subs and go rafting a few times a day. A lot of Maoris worked there along with other white guy Kiwis, they are just some of the chillest people ever, very ‘no worries’ attitude in New Zealand for sure. A lot of them got excited when I said I was from California, a lot of them go out there to work on the American River and really like it up near Sacramento. One of them has a wife out in California that is kayaking all over the States in training for the London Olympics. He said she may be the best female kayaker in the world, pretty neat stuff.

After sledging, I went with these two Irish girls that had been with me that morning and we went out to the Zorb on the outskirts of Rotorua. A Zorb is a big rubber ball with a smaller rubber ball inside it that is suspended all around with rubber strings that they stuff a few people inside with some water and throw the ball down a hill. I went Zorbing with the two girls and it was really fun, you fall all over each other on the way down and bounce down the track and its just hilarious. I feel like I should start a franchise of this at home, you could make a fortune. They charge way too much for what it is, and all you need is a ball and a hill and you’re set. It’s good times for sure.

On the way out of Rotorua, we went to Wai-O-Tapu, a park where there is lots of thermal volcanic activity that leads to the creation of hot springs, sulfur pools, and mud pools. We saw the Lady Knox geyser erupt and then walked around the park and saw lots of really neat colored pools. My favorite was Artist’s Palette, it was orange and yellow and red, and changed colors all throughout it because of different minerals. Many of the pools had names like ‘Devil’s Home’ or ‘Hell Hole’ or things like that, it was pretty satanic and hellish I guess. All of Rotorua and this place as well are known for the distinct smell of sulfur everywhere. You do get used to it pretty quick, but in the beginning it is a bit nasty. The joke of calling the place Roto-Rooter instead of Rotorua came up a few times, such clever clever people. There are also a lot of spas and health centers around the area, it’s known for mud baths and sulfur pools that are supposed to exfoliate and whatnot, even my hostel had this weird sulfur pool inside what seemed to be a closet. I was going to get in it, but then I saw a sign on the wall that said “Do not put your head under water – Prevent Amoebal Meningitis.” I didn’t feel the need to risk something that sounded that terrible, so I went outside where there was a pool (this hostel was really awesome, there weren’t even bunk beds!) that was actually really warm anyways and was really nice. Rotorua was cool for sure.

Pix: shot from the Maori cultural night (one of the warriors), zorb photos, and shots from the Wai-O-Tapu thermal pools with all the different colored photos and the geyser.