Superloo stinky poo

Rotorua stinks! We just spent three days in the volcanic town of Rotorua, where the earth steams, hot mud bubbles in thick, boiling pools, and the air is thick with sulphur fumes. Very strange, and kinda wonderful:

Despite all the extreme sports advertised in Rotorua, (zorbing, bungee jumping, etc), we opted for an old people's holiday and spent most of our time in the Government Gardens where we took a walk around the lake, taking in some sulphur fields on the way; hit a few baseballs (OK, that wasn't very old people, but our planned game of croquet didn't look as much fun as hitting baseballs and there were way too many pros on the croquet lawn (with their own mallets!) for our liking); then went to the Blue Baths and checked out the faded glory of a once bustling thermal swimming pool.

From Rotorua, we drove to Taupo via Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland and Butchers Pool, then camped in the free Reids Farm camp site (free!) where we fed the ducks, and avoided the pissheads (plenty) by creating an emergency situation in the back of our spaceship that we had to attend to urgently... seeya later, boozers. We also met another Space traveler, "Cylon" who swapped his DVD of Van Wilder, Party Liaison for our unwatched Not Another Teen Movie; great.

In the morning we were excited and impressed by our visit to the public washrooms, magnificently dubbed the Superloo . $2.40 each for a good hot shower. Which we needed. This is the life.

We missed the chance to ski on Mt Ruhapeha - the resorts were all closed due to high winds, and it was the last day of the season anyway - so cut our stay short and drove south to Wellington to stay with Brenda and Sandy. More about Wellington in our next post.

All in all, we thought Rotorua and Taupo were pretty overrated, especially Rotorua. It's very "extreme sports" focussed, and the tourist industry there seems to be geared towards getting you processed through all the things on offer quick sharp - preferably all in one go.

The worst offender is the ludicrous Te Puia, which combines a thermal park, kiwi viewing, "authentic" Maori singing and dancing, and some sort of dumbass interactive exhibit. One person we asked was loudly astonished that we didn't want to experience all this great stuff in one go, scoffing at our objections that it all seemed way too commercial. The thermal park we went to was genuinely cool in its own right.

We enjoyed ourselves in our own (middle-aged) way. My highlight was the Superloo, Ben liked the big fat mud bubbles :-)

Debs