Rotorua and Wai-o-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

After Waitomo, Felice and I traveled for the night to Rotorua, the center of NZ's thermal plateau made famous by the hot springs in the area. The one thing that it is not famous for, however, is the repulsive smell of rotten eggs permeating throughout the entire city because of the sulfur. The smell will come out of nowhere and overwhelm you... It's pretty gross. I guess people get used to it, because there are a fair number of people that live in the town. Our hostel was lovely and even had a hot tub and free pasta dinner, so we took it easy and relaxed that night.

In the morning, Jan was our bus driver again for our trip to Wai-o-Tapu, the "Thermal wonderland" national park. We stopped first at the mud pools, which smelled even worse than the town. The giant pond of mud was bubbling and hot... Apparently people bathe in it but with the smell that was the last thing I felt like doing. Our next stop was the Lady Knox geyser, which erupts naturally every 24-48 hours, but they induce an eruption at 10:15 every morning thanks to the tourists flock there. It was pretty cool since I've never seen a geyser before, spouting about 10 meters into the air.

Our last stop was to the actual Wai-o-Tapu park. This was stunning (again despite the smell), filled with hundreds of volcanic craters and pools, colored what seems to be really unnatural coloring because of the rare minerals brought to the surface. All the ground is steaming and the water is boiling right out of the ground. The lakes were bright green or orange or highlighter yellow. 

Jan the driver offered to give us a free ride back to Taupo with her if we waited until she finished her afternoon tour, so we decided to check out the Rotorua museum. I would highly recommend this if you're in Rotorua. It's in the old bath house building from the 19th century, giving the history of Rotorua as a spa and medical center, attracting people with ailments from all over the world for a soak in the mineral waters. The museum also recreates the giant volcano eruption that changed the city a few hundred years ago, and gives a great overview of the Maori history in the area. Great views from the top of the museum too!