Trip to Rotorua

For a weekend adventure we went to the city of Rotorua which is about an hour from Hamilton and more inland. The city has 17 lakes and is known for its geothermal activity. The area is active and thermal pools are form from the holes in earth's crust. It's weird -- and kinda gross-- that the city smells like rotten eggs. Seriously, I am not joking about this. The reason?? Hydrogen Sulfide is released from the geothermal activity and leaves the WHOLE city smelling like sulfur. It wasn't too bad though-- fine to visit...but to live? Probably not.

One of the thermal pools

(only for viewing--they were blocked off)

BLACK swans + Lake Rotorua

We had lunch at a small cafe' on the lake which was really nice and delicious :). Then, it was time for the real adventure. We were dead set on going to a mud pool...but after checking out the spas we were unable to find one that either had mud pools or was open. I'm kind of glad that this was the case though because we ended up going to a thermal spring that was out in the forest rather than spending our money at some stupid spa. I wish i had pictures of it... We weren't allowed to take pictures because it's not widely known and they want to keep it that way. It's in the same area as Kerosene Creek and this is a picture...which is almost exactly like where we were.

Minus the waterfall because this picture is farther up the stream. It was really awesome though to be surrounded by the forests (i love them here because they have so many different types of trees and plants, they look incredible). Also, it was next to a stream so when you started to get to hot you just moved more towards the stream and you could cool off without ever having to get out :) ahhhh, it was so great. Besides my mishap with my toe... I was cruisin' a little ways down the stream to cool off and somehow got this tiny sharp rock stuck in my toe. IN MY TOE. This is not a joke..nora had to pull it out for me. Ow, oh my gosh it hurt so bad. Damn little bugger. So now my toe is all band-aided up and its right on the tip of my toe so wearing shoes is a pain in the arse. That's the price you pay for adventure--right?

Wanna know something crazy? OF COURSE YOU DO. In the thermal pools you are not, I repeat ARE NOT supposed to put your head under the water. Why? Because apparently you can get a form of meningitis-- Amoebic Meningitis. This form can apparently kill a person really quickly and it enters through your ears and/or mouth and then reaches the brain. Crazy? I think yes. It's just one of those things that has a small chance of happening but just to be safe you always keep your head above water. Remember that if you ever find yourself in a thermal pool :) Just a little friendly advice from yours truly.

-BriDownUnder