Sulfur City

A wonderful weekend getaway sponsored by Boston University, yet again!

We left Friday morning in two vans with Joe, our resident tour guide from GOOT, and his friend Kath, a guide from Active Earth. No Kevin-- he went to the US for his sister's wedding!

So off we went on 1 South toward Rotorua, a tourist hotspot famous for its geothermal action. We stopped in a town called Tirau for lunch. It's essentially The Place To Stop on your way south to Rotorua, so it's touristy in its own right. Some time ago, the folks of Tirau made a giant dog-shaped building out of corrugated iron for public restrooms, and it all stemmed from there, really. There's cheesey corrugated iron signage all over the place. That's Tirau's claim to fame. Nice cafes, though.

While we were getting back into the vans to head the rest of the way to Rotorua, Kath started talking to this young kid on a bike. Peter/Pierre, 17 years of age, is taking a year off before he starts university in his native French Canadia, and is traveling the North Island of New Zealand on his bike, camping night by night. He was looking weary, and his eyes lit up when he found that we were heading to Rotorua for the weekend in our vans. He was headed there himself, but he had come all the way from the Northland (with stops in between) and had been on his bike since the beginning of October. So... we picked him up. And he spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with us. Awesome.

Our first stop in Rotorua was Zorb Rotorua. What is zorbing, you ask? Why, let me paint you a picture. There are two options: dry zorb or wet zorb. In the dry zorb, which no BU kid chose, they strap you into this giant hamster ball so you look like that classical piece of art that's in a lot of geometry classrooms, and roll you down a hill. To wet zorb, you get into a smaller sphere inside the larger sphere of the hamster ball. Also in the smaller sphere is a little bit of water, so as they roll you (and one or two of your friends, if you want) down the hill, you slosh around bodies and warmish water. And then the zorb ball births you out at the base.

Yeeeeah. It looks exactly as you're imagining.

Three of four zorb balls full of BU kids rolled down the hill as I took photos. Not really for me, but entertaining for sure.

After zorbing we ogled some ancient Maori rock art (they liked to paint wakas), shopped for groceries, then checked into the beautiful Blue Lake Holiday Camp, about 15 minutes outside of the city centre. Joe cooked us a nice NZ barbecue, and then we hung out and went to bed.

We hit the road early Saturday morning to go white water rafting on Kaituna River! It's home to (possibly) the world's largest commercially rafted waterfall at 7 metres (21ish feet). Roooock. It was wicked sweet; I didn't fall out.

After rafting, we walked a short bushwalk called Hongi's Track, at the end of which is a Wishing Tree. According to Maori legend, a young girl hid her infant in a hole in the base of the tree, which protected her from an approaching warrior tribe. Years later, the now-grown aforementioned baby met the love of her life in the area of the same tree. So, now, passersby present the tree with a gift to thank it, and to ask for something, usually good weather and safe travels. We scattered rewarewa around the base and enjoyed the sunshine for the rest of our weekend.

SPEAKING OF BABIES, Ms Peloquin-Dzhgjasdjklflasdhgdsaski and her husband Mr Dzakdhhdgjajatvski welcomed Eve Baudry to their nest on Friday night! Congratulations them.

Back to my weekend on the other side of the planet. After the wishing tree, we hit up some sweet as natural hot springs. We hung around town that afternoon, then Ashley, Ning and I booked an evening cultural experience at Mitai Maori Village. Our evening included a show, a hangi feast, and an after-dark walk through Rainbow Springs Nature Reserve. The show was fantastic: we got to see a traditional powiri (greeting ceremony), followed by some songs and dances, including the poi and the haka, and a weapons demonstration. Then we ate an epic feast cooked for four hours inside the earth. At our table were two young journalists (on named Jackie) who are traveling the world for nine months (they had just come to NZ from South America), and a retired University of Adelaide drama lecturer who used to work at the Saint Michael's Playhouse!! Random?!

The bushwalk was awesome; we saw tons of trout (four different kinds!) swimming in the clearest natural spring I have ever seen in my entire life (left completely untouched by the park staff). We also saw various birds, including three kiwi!! So exciting: the elusive, nocturnal, endangered national bird and symbol of pride of this little country. They're really the stuff of legends; I feel very fortunate to have seen some in a (almost) natural setting.

Sunday was full of steaming, smelly craters. We first stopped at what I can only describe as a huge gurgling mud puddle. It inexplicably reeked of bacon, and the sulfur made it smell like boiled eggs. It was fantastic to watch boil and bubble; what a weird planet this is.

We left the gurgling mud for Waiotapu (which means "sacred waters") Thermal Wonderland, and watched a geyser erupt. I learned, with a surge of pride, that the largest condensed actively thermal area is in the Yellowstone region of the United States. The US has some cool nature, too! Then which we walked around for a couple hours, seeing and smelling ponds, lakes, rocks, mud, and craters caused by different mineral deposits and stuff in the center of the planet. I don't really know; I haven't read A Short History of Nearly Everything yet.

After the Wonderland, we took a 4WD bus ride up Mount Tarawera, and then hiked to the summit. It was definitely one of my like, Top 5 Best Things in New Zealand. I loooove hiking; even when I'm behind everyone else, wheezing, aching, and sweating, I'm so digging it. Hiking is just so cool. I feel so good after a hike. And even though we rode in a badass bus most of the way up the volcanic dome, we still hiked for about two hours.

Our hilarious 67-year old tour guide Terry (who kicked my ass summiting that thing) told us the Maori legends about the mountain, and about it erupting in 1886 and burying three villages. The area is now tapu (sacred) to the Maori, so it's closed to all except those who have a guided 4WD tour (thanks, BU!), so hardly anyone hikes it. Joe, who has seen pretty much every crevice of this country, had only been up once, when he was 15! Definitely off the beaten track. Also, it was a dank hike; since the mountain was formed by a volcanic eruption, it's all this weird, porous rock (think pumice), and a crater we hiked the was all scree, which rock is loose and broken-up rocks, so we were essentially like, skiing down.

The ride down the mountain in the 4WD bus, Terry sang us an Irish drinking song (he taught us the chorus), and then we sang a Maori song I know. He also pulled over every few metres to get off the bus, snap a branch off, and then talk to us about the plant for a solid few minutes. He hongi-ed us all as we got off the bus, too. He was fantastic.

We hit up another geothermal pool and splashed around (but not too much, for fear of amoebic meningitis) for a bit, and then headed back to the camp to have a pizza party. Yumzor.

Some people ran 5.5 kilometres around Blue Lake on Sunday morning; I made it down to cheer them on at the finish line. Then I took a kayak out into the lake for a little reflection, and we were back on the road to Auckland in the afternoon.

I'm going to miss this country.

I'll post a link to photos once I load them.