Rotten Eggs Rotorua

After a lovely night's rest at the backpackers, we woke up to lovely and continuous rain in Rotorua. Rotorua has 2 or 3 geothermal parks around, and we opted for the free one. We saw steamy lakes and some bubbling mud. It was sort of so-so and a bit underwhelming. On top of that, the whole town smells of rotten eggs (due to the sulfur).

We cruised a bit more and found a Salvos ~ a salvation army ~ Mike and I love stopping in and finding random and funky things. After our simple sandwiches for lunch, we went over to the Rotorua Museum. It is in an old bathhouse. It was a very well-designed and informative museum. We joined the 4 pm tour and our tour guide filled us with information about the town, the history of the healing baths, the volcanic activity in the area, and the Maori culture that is so prominent in this area.

Next up was the Polynesian Spa. We all climbed into naturally heated hot mineral water pools. The first one, aka the cold one is 38 degrees Celsius. The warmer pools overlook Lake Rotorua. We hopped between four or five different pools in differing degrees of hotness. They say that the mineral water is full of healing powers and it was extremely relaxing. Nicole and I were about ready to nod off for a nap.

After dinner, we headed to an Irish Pub for the All Blacks vs. the Wallabies in the tri-nations rugby. (It's a rugby tourney between NZ, Australia, and South Africa.) We were sharing our dorm with 2 Scottish girls and so the 5 of us shared a table and watched the game. To my sadness, the All Blacks fell to the Wallabies in the 2nd half.

While we'd heard Rotorua was so exciting you could spend 2 days there, we were all set with moving on and after awaking at a normal hour (9 am) we checked out and headed to Lake Taupo....