Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Rainy Rotorua

If you like sulphur pools, hot springs and bubbling mud pools, then Rotorua is the place for you. Much like Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, Rotorua is built on a geothermal hotspot and there is evidence of activity pretty much everywhere. Apparently there's a geyser here too that goes off regularly but I think it costs $40 to get into the area.

We landed in Rotorua (after our long flights) and despite the dreary weather had a little tour of the place from a friend of Nancy's who lives in Vancouver but has lived here (thanks Lee!). We walked along the edge of the sulphur lake and through the park with fenced areas of steaming, bubbling water areas. The difference from Yellowstone is that this is all right in the middle of town as opposed to a wilderness area.

In the afternoon we grabbed our swimwear, headed to the Polynesian Spa and made our way through about 8 different pools with varying temperatures and degrees of acidity/alkalinity. It's a huge hot springs development in the centre of town and we only went in the adult area ('adult' meaning no kids). They also have private pools, family areas, etc.

Our Airbnb place is pretty much downtown and hosted by Lani an artist - lots of funky art and decor including this mural on the back of the door in the bathroom.



This entire area is really geared for outdoor adventures - hiking, biking, etc - so with the inclement weather we looked for something that might not require too much outside. The Agrodome is a working farm that included a sheep show and a farm tour. All the sheep (about 20 different kinds) were displayed on stage followed by a sheep shearing demonstration. It was interesting but I'm getting less enthusiastic about shows which require animals to be herded and chained. Then we all loaded onto a tractor-drawn wagon and rode around the farm, stopping to feed the sheep and alpacas. Technically, we didn't jump out in the pouring rain and mud to feed the animals but a few kids on a school trip did.

Sorry I don't have more pics but I just tried to load them onto my computer and the SD card corrupted somehow. Luckily I only lost a day's worth of photos.

Cyclone Cook is expected to hit landfall tomorrow but we're already getting a lot of rain and wind. In all my travels I've been fortunate to have pretty good weather. Guess my luck has run out!

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