Roto-vegas

Monday June 29

Our first night in the seemingly lovely Treks YHA was slightly less than pleasant- the heaters in our building were not on nor could they be turned on, and in the morning the hot water was fickle and went between luke warm and ice cold. So we were not so warm when we set off into the gray drizzle and rotten egg smell Rotorua had to offer. 

We drove about 20km out of town to Waimangu which is the only hydrothermal system in the world whose surface activity can be named to an exact date- 10 June 1886 ("this morning in geological times"). The whole place looked like Jurassic Park and we kept expecting dinosaurs to jump out at us. We saw Frying Pan Lake with steam coming up, and Echo Crater that used to be a geyser and a tourist attraction in the early 1900's before it went extinct. A lot of the area looked like a science project with bubbling water, neon slime, and tons of steam. We did a self guided tour with little blurbs of information for various formations and points of interest and did a nice (steep) hike that gave us views of the valley and Lake Rorotonga(?). The track ended at the lake- which formed when the ground shifted and combined two smaller lakes and destroyed the famous Pink and White Terraces. There were a lot of giant black swans on the lake, and the whole thing was creepy and beautiful.

We warmed up in our car with our toasty heater, and headed out to go Zorbing! Tiffany and I changed into swimsuits (which was harder than it sounds, seeing as it was sooo cold out) but were told to keep our socks on. When we asked the guy why, he replied "some people have really long toe nails". Disgusting. We were driven up a windy dirt track in probably record time. We then were escorted onto a platform where our giant inflatable ball was procured, had some warm water added to the inner bubble, then she and I jumped, Superman style, into it. The guy zipped the little hole shut and said "when I bang on the outside, start running". So he went "bang bang" and like hamsters, we went running and sent the ball spinning down the hill. With the water inside it was like a big slip and slide and we were tumbling all over and shrieking our heads off. It was really good. That evening Caitlin went to a Maori cultural show and presentation. Tiffany and I got fish and chips then went to the Polynesian Spa where we soaked in hot mineral water for a few hours and had a wonderful and relaxing time (it was beautiful but we didn't take any pictures polynesianspa.co.nz). It was also the warmest we'd been in days!