We drove an hour away to Rotorua. The first thing that hit us when we got off the bus was a horrid smell. I thought someone had cracked open a bag of rice snacks.
We walked to our hostel, Rock solid backpackers. It was an old sports centre converted but still had the climbing wall. We checked in and started walking towards Sala Street where we had booked ourselves onto the living Moari village tour. It was about a 45minute walk and we soon figured out that the horrid smell following us around was this place. It's full of geo thermal pools as it's placed next to an in-active volcano (its already exploded).
We arrived at the Moari village and started to walk around. First of all we had a look at the mud pool. The smell was so strong in this village. Cj actually felt a bit queazy. I can only describe the smell as rotten eggs. Thevmud pool was bubbling from the thermal ground.
The Moari village was really interesting. We watched a show where they did their traditional dancing and the Hakka. One of the dances was with Poi's. I really like it so i bought a pair for $10. I'm not that good...yet!
We joined our tour at 3pm and we learnt that the earth's crust is only 13 metres thick in Rotorua. The water in-between the layers of the earths crust is being heated bu the mantel and causing stream to erupt and mud to solidify and boil. This is the cause of the horrid smell which is the break down of sulphur within the Earths crust. And the only way for this smell to be vented is cracks in the Earths crust.
The water is actually really good for dry skin and psoriasis as its natural minerals and boiling hot. The Moari traditionally bathe in the thermal water as they can take the high temperatures.
The Maori also make holes with grills in the ground and use the steam to cook their food. It's very healthy but takes all day. They were also cooking corn on a cobs in one of the hot pools. It only took 5 minutes for him to cook it.
It was a very educating day out. A bit of a Geography lesson.
After our tour we trekked back into town to make our dinner and move into our dorm room.
The next day we visited the local thermal park. Again, a very smelly place. We looked in a few of the souvenir shops and just chilled out...kind of. We decided to start booking up America which was quite stressful. Cj hates booking accommodation.
Our bus the next day set of at 7:30am so we had an early start.
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