Rotorua

Sean and Kailani on the luge

Hangi Feast

Maori Show

Watching the green rolling hills with sheep and cows at our campground at the Waikite Thermal Pools

Wai-O-Tapu

08.31.08: From Papamoa, we drove into the Lake Rotorua region. I read in our Rough Guide how you can smell the sulfur coming from miles away, so my nose was on guard. I didn’t smell anything until we finally came right into town. Then, I looked to the side of the road to see a sign that said “Wastewater Treatment Facility”. So, I’m still not sure what I was smelling…

We stayed at the Top 10 Blue Lake Holiday Park (Campground), just a few minutes from the city of Rotorua. It was set right across the street from Blue Lake. There were pine trees on one side of the lake that were obviously planted. It’s pretty strange to see trees growing on a mountain in rows. I read somewhere that they are actually California pines that were planted as an experiment to see how they would grow. Apparently, they ended growing four times faster than in CA. On the other side of the lake is native bush mixed with ancient cycads. It’s quite an interesting mix.

This region has been a popular tourist spot for years because of all hot springs in the area. Because of this, it’s grown to have a number of other tourist activities to do as well. After settling into our camp sight, we were given a perplexing number of brochures to look through. But, we finally settled on a small but diverse list of categories to conquer: hot springs, Maori culture, thrill ride and animal experience for Kai. After, we went on a walk on a trail that went around the lake. Sean and Kailani stopped to throw in a fishing line out while I continued around the lake. Unfortunately, there were no fish when I got back to them. So, we went back to the campground and made dinner. The campground had DVDs available for rent and it was refreshing to see a movie that we’ve never seen, Madagascar.

The next morning, Sean went fishing again. Kailani and I stayed in the camper and ate breakfast. She insisted we watch Madagascar again. I’m glad that we needed to return it after that. Although it’s a good movie, I’m sure if we bought it, it would have been watched a zillion times by now. Again, Sean came back with no fish. But this time, the trail was closed for “Tree Felling”. I think that’s what they call when they purposely clear trees from the forest so they don’t fall down on their own and cause an accident.

Later that morning, we headed down to town to a store called The Outdoorsman Headquarters. Technically, Sean still needed a fishing license in order to fish at the lakes. Luckily, we were camping at a lake that’s OK to fish in, because he found out that it’s illegal to fish at the next lake over, Green Lake, since it’s Maori land. I started browsing through their selection of New Zealand merino wool thermal insulating clothes. The weather had turned cold that morning (FREEZING!), so timing was just right. I ended up picking a camisole made by Icebreaker. Still, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t also get a long sleeve shirt. It’s so incredible warm and soft! If you are in cold weather, I’d definitely recommend this stuff! I also strolled into their footwear department. I was still wearing my Keen sandals with socks. My toes were also freezing. For two weeks in Australia, I (as well as Caitlin and Tutu) had been on the hunt for some new Uggs, but never found anything that looked like good quality or style. Later, we found out that Uggs was actually bought by an American company. I guess that’s why there is a better selection of Uggs in the US than in Oz. Go figure! Anyway, at the store, I found a great pair of Merrell boots with fuzzy detailing and lined with Thinsulate. (No sheepskin, but that’s OK.) Nothing was cheap, but definitely worth it.

From there, we went to the Skyline Skyrides, took a gondola 200 meters up to the top of Terawera Mountain for great views of Lake Rotorua and then did some luge rides down. There are a number of places in town where you can get your adrenaline kicks: zorb, sky diving, bungy diving, etc. I’m sure Sean and I would be up for all of it. But, it was nice that we actually found something that was for the whole family. We all had a fun time. Kai was able to ride tandem on the luge. So first, she went with Sean, then with me, then with Sean again. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t the greatest. It was misty up there and it kept looking like it was going to start pouring. But from a positive perspective, it motivated us to go down faster. At first, I was wondering if it’d be too much for Kai to handle. But after every ride, she kept asking to go again. We might have an adrenaline junkie in the making. When we were done, we got back into the gondola to go back down the mountain. It started raining pretty hard, so I guess we were just in time. Later that afternoon, we went back to the campground so Sean could go fishing again, this time legally. Unfortunately, the rain never let up.

The next day, we checked out of our campground at Blue Lake and went to the Waikite Valley thermal pools. The great thing about there is that they have a campground attached to their facilities and if you stay at the campground, you can bathe for free. As you are going to Waikite Valley, you take Highway 5, named The Thermal Explorer Highway. As you go, you can see big clouds of steam coming all up and down the road, hence the name. At the campground, we settled in and had lunch before jumping into the pools. Sean had the lamb stroganoff with couscous and I had some kumara and something (I can’t remember, but it was a Maori name) soup. We were impressed with both. The stroganoff sauce had a kick of cinnamon, which I think disguised the normally gamey flavor of the lamb well. At the pools, Kai found a friend to play with, another two and a half year old, Hannah, who was half Kiwi and half Cambodian, from Rotorua. Her parents owned St. Andrews bakery in town. Just as some other locals that we met there said, they preferred this place over others like the Polynesian Spa in town because it’s much more sedate and less crowded.

Later that night, we went to a Maori show and dinner run by Mitai (equivalent to a Hawaiian luau). There, we saw a performance of traditional Maori dance, music, song and chants. Then, ate a hangi dinner, where the chicken, lamb, potatoes, kumara and bread are steamed to perfection in a Maori earth oven (which I think is heated by hot springs). After dinner, we ended the night with a bush walk around the village where we saw glow worms and spring water pool that bubbled up several million gallons of water daily, and had freshwater eel and trout living there. Although it was not the most intimate way to experience the Maori culture, it was still fun and interesting.

The next day, we went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, where Sean wanted to see the Lady Knox Geyser that goes off every morning at 10:15am sharp. No, it doesn’t naturally go off at the same time every day. In fact, naturally, it would go off any time between 24 to 72 hours. But every day, a ranger puts a soap-like substance into it (I’m sure, some kind of surfactant), which releases it’s surface tension and makes it go off. We all did our “oh’s” and “ah’s” and then walked around the rest of the park to see more bubbling thermal hot pools. You can see several different colors in the water and on the land, depending on the presence of what minerals there are. The rest of the landscape was a mix of native bush with what appeared to look like a holocaust zone.

In the afternoon, we went into town to the Rainbow Springs Nature Park for the Kiwi Experience. We toured a conservation center dedicated to reviving the rapid extinction of the kiwi bird. We learned everything you want to know about the kiwi, went through their working nursery and got to see live kiwi in their nocturnal room up close without any glass barriers. I was so proud of Kailani in the later environment, as it was absolutely necessary to be quiet. She wanted to see them so bad, she did exactly what she was supposed to. Later that afternoon, went back to the campground to have lunch in their café (more well-done deep fried Dory and chips for Sean, and a chicken burger with mango chutney for me) and bathe in the hot pools again. It was so nice there, we couldn’t get enough!

Our last morning in town, we went to Hannah’s parent’s, St. Andrew’s Bakery, for a quick “takeaway” breakfast. Sean had the best steak and mushroom pie he’s ever had. I had egg rolls that were so good, Kailani, who has never cared for them, stole the rest of what I had. After stopping by the local New World to stock up again, we were off a couple hours back toward the coast to Whakatane.