A short drive down through vineyards and kiwi orchards brought us to Rotorua or ‘Rotten Rua’ as it is often called due to the amount of sulphur released into the air. Rotorua sits on the edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the most active seismic area in the world. It’s in an area of outstanding beauty, surrounded by rolling green hills and extinct volcanoes, the town is situated on the shores of Lake Rotorua.
Our first stop was to Hells Gate thermal area which is Rotorua’s most active geothermal reserve. The bush walk took us past pools of boiling mud, steaming fumeroles and Kakhi Falls the largest hot waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere. The falls are where Maori warriors used to bathe themselves from the blood of battle and to salve their wounds.
The Devils Cauldron has a mud temperature of 120*C, it is the only large mud volcano in New Zealand. Over a period of time this mud crusts over, inside the pressure builds up and after a period of 6 weeks or so it erupts spewing boiling hot mud up to 5 metres in the air – didn’t happen on our visit! Hells Gate is where the local Maori people came to cook their food, the pool temperature is constant at 98*C and can cook a whole adult pig in 2 hours. This whole area reeks of sulphur and gets so strong in areas that it’s almost vinegary.
At the end of our walk we checked into the Waiora Spa for some serious pampering, we partook of the mud baths and afterwards bathed in the mineral water pools. Thankfully you are given private pools, as the sight of Nigel and I wallowing in black mud like 2 warthogs couldn’t have been a pretty sight! I can only liken it to sitting at the bottom of your fish pond smothering yourself in black pond sludge that smells of rotten eggs – fun though! Especially the freezing cold shower afterwards to remove the disgusting stuff, we now have baby soft skin that despite several showers 24 hours later still smells of rotten eggs.
Our next port of call was a wild life park at Rainbow Springs, in an area called Paradise Valley (driving through the area soon makes you realise how it got its name; what a lovely, secluded place). Although there are no ‘exotic’ species in the park (New Zealand isn’t famed for its elephants), we had a good couple of hours walking around, meeting many of the indigenous inhabitants (and a few that were not quite so local).
The evening was something else again. We went to a local Maori Hungi in Mitai village, this is where your dinner for the evening is cooked in fire pits dug into the ground and you are entertained by the local chief and his warriors – a bit touristy but all good fun.
A person is chosen from the visitors to act as the their chief for the evening, this chief is then is greeted by the Maori Chief in a ritual war dance and challenge followed by the ‘hunga’ - rubbing of noses. This led ‘Chief Burton’ leader of the ‘14 Nation Tribe’ up onto the stage in front of 100 odd 3xpeople to accept the challenge and offer a speech in return on behalf of his ‘tribe’. All great fun for Nigel, I was appointed Chieftaness and we were treated like royalty for a few hours (Queen Bee again before any of you say it!). American tourists were coming up to Nigel asking for his photo – that’s his 15 minutes of fame folks! We also saw a performance of the Hukka, most of you will be familiar with this especially rugby fans, it is the challenge performed by the New Zealand All Blacks to their opponents but was originally performed by Maori warriors going into battle.
A great time had by everyone there and finished by a moonlight walk through the glow worm caves – who as they get hungrier their bums glow more brightly - speaking of which my bum must be glowing as its breakfast time and I’m starving!
