Rotorua

Great 3-hour car trip from Thames to Rotorua! On arrival here, one can

immediately notice the different atmosphere in the city centre. Compared to

Thames, the city's enter is just so touristy / commercial! The way we were

walking around just after arrival kind of reminded me of the Selexyz

commercial, where the writer finds himself in Sa Lou.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Le6WLoWCs

 

The hostel here, Regent Flashpackers, is very different from the one in

Thames. It looks like a student housing complex. The owner and an employee

called Emma are really nice and make up for it though. The owner would have

liked to tempt us into booking all sort of activities you can do here:

bungee jumping, skydiving, rafting, etc. No thanks!

 

We took the car to Redwoods forest to have a walk before dinner. There's

some awesome trees there that are similar to the Sequoia trees we've seen in

westcoast US. The trees in the forest are singing with what seems to be the

sound of crickets. But probably some kind of bark beetle. The entire Rotorua

area smells like sulfur - probably because of all the geysers and hot mud

pools that Rotorua has to offer. Not really a bother though. It's even kind

of a blessing for Judith, because there's less mosquito's and other bugs

that have it in for her. The 'mozzies' don't seem to like me very much,

because I don't get bitten.

 

After the walk, we went to look for "Whakarewarewa": The Living Maori

Thermal Village. It's a village where Maori are still living as they used

to. Not like the other 'cultural' Maori attractions where they dress up and

perform to entertain stupid tourists that have some amazing abilties

themselves: taking pictures whilst stuffing their mouths at the same time.

Amazing! Anyway, Whakarewarewawas closed when we found it, so we'll try

again today.

Done