The Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, about half an hour south from Rotorua, is one of the two main out-of-town thermal areas featuring all the trimmings – Geysers, multi-coloured pools, bubbling mud and steaming hillsides. It’s all pretty impressive and the walkways and paths set into the landscape make it very easy, if somewhat touristy, to explore.

The main geyser action is provided by the decidedly contrived Lady Knox Geyser. I say contrived because at 10.15 every day the geyser is induced to erupt when a chap lobs a block of soap down the spout. I’m told that this reduces the water’s surface tension and allows the build-up of boiling water and attendant steam to escape at high velocity in an upwards direction. The effect is fairly spectacular, though.

Having sampled the joys of Lady Knox, most people head up the road to the main attraction at the Thermal Wonderland. It isn’t inappropriately named, especially if you come from a part of the world with little or no geothermal activity – the various chemicals turn the rocks and waters into a variety of otherworldly colours.

The area to explore is fairly large, and takes at least an hour to walk around at a fair pace. There are slopes and steep climbs, but it’s worth going all the way round to the end to see the bright green colour of Lake Ngakoro.

Other highlights include the Champagne Pool, a steaming body of water lined with cracked red earth which constantly bubbles

And the Devil’s Bath, another unworldly green pool at the bottom of a crater near the end of the walk.

That last one makes me think of rancid milk, but a pretty girl can liven up even the most bizarre place

There are loads of other colourful and bizarre spots at Wai-O-Tapu, but I can’t put up photos of them all. It’s definitely a site that’s well worth a visit, although it is very popular – we were told that huge numbers pass through each day during the peak season, which might reduce the impact a bit. Especially since it seemed fairly busy to me already, and it obviously gets quite a bit more crowded.

The first thing you notice about Rotorua (which means “Second Lake” in Maori) is the stench. Climbing out of our air-conditioned coach and taking a deep breath of shockingly eggy air was a bit like stepping off a plane in a tropical country and being hit by that wall of heat and humidity.

They say you get used to it within a day or two. I’m not so sure, we were still getting wafts as we left four days later, but it does recede from the forefront of your consciousness after a while. And perhaps I’m exaggerating a little, but I think I’m allowed bit of poetic license.

For those reading who are unfamiliar with the sights, sounds and smells of New Zealand, Rotorua smells because it is in the midst of a highly active geothermal area. This means there are lots of hot pools, bubbling boiling mud pits and explosive geysers to look at, as well as some spectacular multi-coloured landscapes caused by the various chemicals in the soil. We explored a few of these, but the first thing we did was chill out at one of Rotorua’s famous spas as it was Pol’s birthday.

(Misplaced Apostrophe Syndrome being particularly bad in Rotorua, for authenticities sake I should have written spas as spa’s, but I just couldn’t bring myself to.)

When it comes to spas there’s a lot of choice in Rotorua, and we headed to the fairly well known Polynesian Spa for a soak in the exclusive Lake Spa pools and a massage. Although a lot of tourists pass through this complex, most end up in the cheaper pools, and the Lake Spa section has great views over Sulphur Bay and a private bar and relaxation area for those willing to shell out a bit extra. Nice. Unfortunately I have no piccies of us in our swimming gear relaxing in the hot pools, so you’ll just have to use your imaginations. But here’s one of the coffees we had later on that morning:

New Zealand’s coffee culture deserves a post all of it’s own – maybe another day. We liked these particular coffees because of the patterns in the milk froth. I understand that creating these patterns can be considered an art, and that there are even competitions. I have no idea whether these particular patterns are the result of chance or artifice, but they look quite nice regardless. We were served these at the excellent Zippy Central cafe on Pukuatua Street.

Te Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve

Fortunately the name of the closest thermal area to the city is commonly shortened to Whaka. It’s about twenty minutes walk out of town along the motel lined Fenton Street, which we later learnt is apparently responsible for Rotorua’s nickname of Roto-Vegas (”They have Casinos, we have Motels” – Go Figure, as the Yanks might say). But it’s worth the walk. The reserve has been divided in two due, according to our guidebook, to some kind of land rights dispute. We visited the largest section, run by the New Zealand Maori Arts & Crafts Institute.

There’s lots of pretty cool stuff to see in the complex. First and foremost are the geothermal features – the Prince of Wales Feathers and Pohutu geysers and the various pools of boiling mud, like this one, the Ngamokaiakoko pool:

There are even pools of hot water that the Maori used (and still use in some cases) to cook their food in. This one is named Ngararatuatara which, like Te Whakarewarewa, just rolls off the tongue.

Despite being surrounded by sights like this, I found one of the weirdest things to be just walking through forest and bush with steam rising from the ground on all sides – it was this that really brought home to me the foreign-ness of the place.

There’s more to the Arts & Crafts Institute than steaming forests and boiling mud. They also run a Kiwi breeding programme and have a nocturnal house where we caught our first glimpses of real live Kiwi birds, well worth the price of entry alone. Alongside all this are the arts and crafts themselves. The the complex is home to a school teaching young Maori the traditional carving and weaving techniques and there are loads of fantastic examples on display. And if all that wasn’t enough, there is also a Cultural show twice a day with dancing and games and face-pulling and spear waving, and it’s all included in the standard entrance fee of $18. A great day out.

There’s loads more to do around Rotorua – far too much for one post here, so look out for upcoming posts on the colourful Thermal Wonderland of Wai-O-Tapu and our experiences of rolling down a hill inside an inflatable ball half full of water, then it’s off for a slightly disappointing time on the shores of Lake Taupo followed by a great time in the Art Deco City, Napier.

A few brief (ha!) notes on bus journeys here in NZ, since at the moment that’s how we’re getting around. There’s a network of buses operated by what seem to be two separate companies who appear to co-operate rather than compete – InterCity and Newmans. We bought a “Flexi-Pass” ticket, which works by time – you buy a certain number of hours and time is deducted from your pass according to some arcane system that we don’t quite understand, but so far everything is going well.

(The next paragraph is a more detailed rundown on the Flexi-Pass (the Discordian in me keeps wanting to type Flaxi-Pass) intended for anyone surfing by looking for a punters-eye perspective on the ticket. Those visiting for a bit more colour could do worse than skip down to the following paragraph.)

The system works like this: you buy a Flaxi-Pass with a given number of hours (supposedly cheaper the more you buy but the saving seems fairly miniscule and you never know when your plans might change, so I’d recommend not buying too many), then phone the day before you travel to book a seat on a bus. You have to phone, you can’t just turn up or book in an office, but it’s a free call. So far, the buses have been fairly quiet, never more than half full, so we’ve always been able to get on to the buses we’ve wanted. (This may change as the summer arrives – no doubt we’ll find out.) When you book, you provide the serial number from your pass, then the operator is supposed to ask you for the password you choose the first time you called to make a booking. This is obviously designed to discourage pass theft but, since you don’t always get asked for it, seems like a bit of a waste of time. When you roll up (15 minutes early!) at the bus stop, the driver should have your name on his list. Sweet as, as they like to say around here. So far, it’s all been working as advertised, but it’s a fairly new ticket and we get the impression that the whole thing is still in beta, as it were.

Our journeys have all been painless – no hassles, on time, with friendly and helpful drivers. The roads are mostly winding single lane affairs, even on the major routes, but there’s no congestion. Consequently the locals (including heavily loaded logging trucks) like to drive fast, hang off the bumpers of tourist hire-cars and indulge in some shocking overtaking maneouvres. White crosses by the sides of the larger roads mark the locations of some of the nastier head-ons.

The most remarkable thing about the experience has been the staff. The drivers of both companies act more like tour guides than bus drivers. Bear in mind that these coaches are used by locals as well as budget tourists – they are not exclusively aimed at visitors – but nevertheless the drivers provide a running commentary on local attractions to the extent that on one journey (Waitomo to Rotorua) we wondered if we had mistakenly boarded a tour bus rather than our scheduled National Express equivalent. The commentary often includes vast quantities of proudly related details on the local feats of engineering and manufacturing – so far we’ve had glowing accounts of hydroelectric and geothermal power stations of various kinds and of New Zealand’s extensive and huge dairy product processing plants. You just can’t quite imagine getting this sort of commentary back in the UK.

The aforementioned Waitomo to Rotorua journey even included a brief layover at the sight of a large Hydroelectric plant on the Waikato River called, IIRC, Arapuni. The driver enthused over the historic swing-bridge dating back ot the construction of the dam which was used at the time to get the workmen over the gorge separating their quarters from the worksite. To be fair, the bridge and the view it commanded were quite spectacular.

The next post on this site should be more visually pleasing – it’ll be all about Rotorua, and there’ll be lots of photos of mental volcanic mudpools and geysers and multicoloured lakes and stuff like that. Not to mention the Zorbing.

Forgive me for the title of this post – all will become clear soon enough. (And no, it doesn’t involve velcro gloves or any such thing, but did you really expect a visit to New Zealand to involve absolutely no mention of these beasts? After all there are something like 40 million sheep (compare to 4 million humans) in the country.)

Now I know that, for most of us, sheep are nothing particularly special. They are just sheep – rather stupid animals good for two things: wool and the pot (nice with a bit of the old mint sauce). That is, unless you happen to be female and from Los Angeles. Two of our companions on the caving expedition were such characters, and upon sighting their first wool-laden quadrupeds promptly burst into a chorus of shrieks which resolved after a moment for near-unconscious translation into “Oh my Gawd! They’re so cute! Stopthevan!Stopthevan! I just gotta take a photo” You’d think that they’d never seen a sheep before, which I suppose they may well not have – I’ve no idea whether sheep farming is Big Business in California or not. So we sat there in the minibus for ten minutes while they chased sheep around the karsts. I kept hoping they’d scare one so badly that it would fall down a pot-hole, but it didn’t happen. Now that would’ve been real entertainment. Sigh.

Waitomo is one of New Zealand’s premier tourist attractions, most famous for the limestone caves which riddle the hills and the glow-worms inhabiting them. Most people who visit the area do so very briefly, only allowing enough time to do a cave trip of some description – some involve a fairly sedate walk or boat journey through a cave lit by the green lures of the glow-worms, others are more adventurous and involved clambering up underground waterfalls and abseiling down pot-holes.

We didn’t stay much longer ourselves, only long enough to do a couple of the walks the area has to offer in addition to the obligatory cave trip. I’m afraid to say that we bottled out of the more radical trips due to the strong possibility of having to squeeze through tiny claustrophobia-inducing nooks and crannies, but our more relaxing clamber and boat trip through a large-ish cave was worth it for the spectacular glow worms. No photos of those, unfortunately, as you’d need a tripod and at least 5 or 6 minutes of open shutter time to get anything at all on film, you’ll just have to take my word for it that they were pretty amazing.

The walks were worth it too, particularly the Ruakuri walk through the bush to a natural tunnel, the result of cave collapses in the past. The walk takes you up and down fairly steep bush-clad slopes and in and out of old caves around a river valley. Apparently the walk is worth doing at night, as the area in infested with glow-worms which make for a magical atmosphere. Unfortunately this only highlighted the desirability of a car, as the walk is several Kilometres outside of the village and too far for us to come on foot at night.

Other good walks are the Opakapa Pa walk, which ends on a hilltop with great views which was the site of a Maori Pa (fortified settlement) a few hundred years back. Lastly, the 10km Waitomo Walkway is a good way to get out overland to Ruakuri if you don’t have a car or just fancy a pleasant tramp though the karst hills.

Also worth a mention is the Waitomo Museum which, although perhaps orientated more towards the school parties which come through every day, is worth visit for the thorough rundown on the local flora, fauna and geology.

We might not have done any surfing at Raglan, but we did do some other stuff, including our first real trip into the New Zealand bush – a jaunt out to the Bridal Veil Falls. The falls plunge around fifty meters down a sheer cliff in an area of quite dense forest.

The treeferns are really quite otherworldly when you get up close. From a distance the NZ forest sometimes resembles our woods at home, but this illusion is quickly dispelled when you get amoung the trees.

Thanks to fellow brits Chris and Beth for the lift out to the falls. We’re really beginning to think that a car might become necessary to get the most out of the more remote areas.

We got to see a bit more of the Raglan area in the company of April and Alex, too, including a rather hair raising drive around the base of Mount Kairoi on an unsealed road. It was worth it for the views, though.

Thanks again to everyone who took us out and about!

We’ve just spent the weekend in a town named Raglan (after the officer who led the Charge of the Light Brigade). Apparently it is famous in Surfer circles as having one of the best left-handed breaks in the world, and sure enough the place was very surf orientated. There’s even a big, pro longboard surf competition next weekend, but unfortunately we won’t be around to watch.

You don’t need to be a surfer to enjoy Raglan, however. It’s quiet and relaxing and there are some great places to stay. The surrounding scenery is spectacular and there are miles of beaches to walk along.

The view to the south is dominated by an extinct volcano, Mount Karioi.

Although, as you might be able to tell from the photos, the weather was a bit wild from time to time, this didn’t prevent some from taking advantage of the beaches. My attempts to photograph the surfers failed, as they were always too far out to show up, but there were other things going on besides surfing.

The beaches weren’t the only interesting things in Raglan. There were clearly a few Individuals living in the town judging by some of the houses.

And if you just want to relax with a book and some peace and quiet in pleasant surroundings, check out the Raglan Backpackers and Waterfront Lodge. It’s a mellow hostel run by a couple named Jeremy and Lynda (along with Jed the dog and Meg the cat) with clean, comfortable rooms, great views from the sofa-filled lounge and a well equipped kitchen. Jeremy does reasonably priced surfing lessons, and will happily regale you with surfer tales and the like for free. There are canoes and bikes available as well, free for guests.

We’ve been in New Zealand a week now, and I’m just starting to think that I’ve finally got over the jet-lag. Woo-hoo!

Impressions of Auckland varied from day to day, depending on where we were and how tired we were feeling. At first, neither of us was particularly impressed, but we warmed to the place over time. I think our initial reservations were based in part on the fact that we arrived at the beginning of the Labour Day weekend – the city was uncharacteristically quiet, and we found ourselves wandering the streets wondering where everyone was. Things livened up a bit when the normal week resumed.

The highlight was probably Auckland Museum, which is also a war memorial (and was in fact initially built as one). It’s a neo-classical building situated at the highest point of the Domain (the city park). It holds a lot of good Maori and Pacific Island exhibits, most of a floor devoted to the subject of New Zealand at war (in keeping, I suppose, with the building’s origin as a war memorial) and a fantastic set of rooms devoted to the geology and biology of the islands. All of it is interesting, well laid out and obviously designed with cross-generational appeal in mind – as evidenced by the stream of noisy school parties that kept us company during our wanderings through the halls.

The suburb of Devonport on the north shore of Waitemata Harbour, opposite the central business district, is another spot worth visiting. A network of streets lined with old buildings surrounds the remains of a volcano called Mount Victoria which provides great views of the city. It’s from there that these photos were taken. There are lots of little shops selling books and souvenirs and knick-knacks as well as plenty of cafes to sit and eat in .

I’m sure we saw only a fraction of Auckland in the few bleary days we spent there (in addition to the above we checked out the K’ Road, Ponsonby and Parnell, each of which was cool in it’s own way), but we didn’t come to NZ on a citybreak. So we’re off into the hinterlands before our cash runs out and we have to head home or get a job. Still, we’ll be back so if anyone surfs across this page and has any Auckland suggestions, then please leave a comment!

Just a quick “Hello!” to anyone dropping by. I know it’s been a bit boring around these parts recently, but I’m now on day 3 in New Zealand and the jetlag is still biting. Dunno where I am or WTF is going on half the time.

More soon. Honest.