Besides the road signs, there were a couple more things I would import from New Zealand. One was the fries container at Burger King designed to fit in a cup holder. Perfect for those on the go! Another was the show "Brainiacs", although I think that was actually British. Anyone remember the American program "Beakman's World"? It was a bit like that. It was a quirky and cheeky show that mixed science and history. The "shopping trolley" (cart) beat the skateboard and Segway when used as a steed for jousting. And rubbing two sticks together started a fire faster than flint & steel and optical crystal. Oh how I love discovering things on foreign television! CSI and Castle were popular overseas, too.
Back to the road trip...
Rotorua is a tourist town. You can smell it before you see it. The earth's crust is incredibly thin in this area. The smallest crack can develop into a geyser. Steam vents constantly belch out sulfur vapor (thus, the smell). The natives settled (and fought over) Rotorua starting as far back as the 1300s, which gives it a rich history. Maori still make up 35% of the population. There were many tourist reserves to choose from, both for thermal activity and Maori culture. Unfortunately, we had sort of run out of time when we got to Rotorua. The big, elaborate tourist places were nearly closing, so we decided to go to some public places instead.
This is the Rotorua Museum. We didn't go inside, but its surrounding Government Gardens were beautiful. Ma was jealous of their ability to grow primroses (pictured here).
Our next stop was Kuirau Park. Public and free. There was plenty of bubbling mud (pictured above), steaming holes, and boiling pools to view here.An explosive event seven years ago covered the entire park in mud. The pools seemed steadily active yet calm today.
This pool was awesome. The water was probably contaminated with some kind of mineral (calcium? sodium?) which formed a crust on the edges. It was cordoned off.If we'd had time to visit the Wai-O-Tapu thermal reserve, we could have seen huge pools colored in pink, yellow, green, and orange and leached with minerals and heavy metals brought forth from deep inside the earth.
Steam rose from everywhere.
Some of the pools were hidden behind vegetation.
Others were right out in the open. This is me sticking my finger in one. It was warmer than bath water, but it wasn't boiling. And it stank like rotten eggs. There was a public bathing pool elsewhere. It was a little cold for that today.
You could hear the gurgle of boiling water and the hiss of steam from this rock display.
New vents open up all over the place. This was a few feet from the road, and adjacent to a soccer field where kids were playing. It wasn't cordoned off either. It was just "marked" by the orange mesh. As if to say, "Aaak, no big deal."On our way back to Auckland we stopped at a Countdown supermarket. Per usual, we got rolls, cheese, butter, ham, and some veggies for a picnic on-the-go. Oh, and apple juice. (If you want to hear the Paihia apple juice story, you'll have to ask Ma. It's far too humiliating to tell here. But in my own defense, I was not feeling well and my nose was plugged up.)
