The Sulphur City

 

As well as a short trip to Rotorua with Sarah and Fred, I also spent a couple of days on my own in the sulphurous city. The smell is one of the first things you notice as you start walking around the city – Rotorua is a geothermally active area, with hot-pools, geysers and volcanoes all in the vicinity.

On my first afternoon in Rotorua I walked down to the lake-front, past steaming drains and through a park with several fenced off areas for mud-pools and hot-pools. The views across the lake were spectacular but soon the smell of the sulphur and the onset of heavy rain drove me away from the smoking landscape and into the museum.

 

In the evening I attended one of the many touted cultural experiences at the Te Puia geothermal valley. Te Pō (the night) is an evening of Maori storytelling, entertainment and food. On arrival we were welcomed by our guide and shown the Hangi pit – the underground geothermally heated ovens that have been cooking the evening's meal for the previous few hours. We proceeded to the entrance of the Marae where the Powhiri (ceremonial welcome), the Wero (challenge) and Karanga (welcome call) took place. These involve calls, chants and dances to show strength, intimidate, and determine that you come in peace. Luckily we passed this challenge and were able to proceed into the Marae for the evening's concert.

The singing and dancing were fantastic – we enjoyed several different songs and the dancing was superb. The women were mesmerising when performing the Poi dance, and the men were certainly a force to be reckoned with when performing their Haka – a dance traditionally used to prepare men for battle, and more modernly to prepare the New Zealand All Blacks for rugby matches! After seeing the experts, we were all given the chance to get involved; with the women learning to Poi dance (much harder than it first appears) and men putting on their war faces for the Haka.

After all the singing and dancing we were ready to eat the Hākari (feast); a magnificent spread of meat, vegetables, salad and desserts, before heading into the thermal valley for the last event of the evening. Seated on the hot rocks, we enjoyed hot chocolate whilst watching the Pohutu geyser shoot hot water and steam up to 30metres into the air. It was a wonderful evening, although I'll admit it did feel more touristy than authentic at times. 

 

The following day I headed to the redwood forest just south of the city and enjoyed a short walk through a forest of giants, before driving a bit further afield to walk a track at the Green and Blue Lakes; two lakes side by side separated by a thin strip of land but sitting at different elevations, and with two very distinct colours (not that it shows in my photos, alas). 

 

I returned to the city for a tour of the lengthily named Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao, a thermal village still lived in by the local Maori. The tour, by one of the residents, felt much more authentic, and gave insight into how the Maori lived in the geothermal landscape and harnessed the earth's powers for their own benefit.

My final stop on my geothermal adventure was to the Waikite Valley to bask in the hot-pools with the sun shining down on me – bliss!