Rotorua New Zealand
New zealand is one of eart's most beautiful countries and rotorua is a prime example of why.
Aland of geothermal activity, Rotorua is not exactly love at first sniff. The town’s lingering eggy, sulphuric air is perhaps the first thing visitors notice when approaching it. However, the source of this smell is far too remarkable to turn one’s nose up at.
In the heart of the city, an innocuous weekly market hawks fresh fruit, crafts, clothing, souvenirs and other goods, but Kuirau is not your average park. Bubbling and hissing, it hints at a great, unstoppable menace below. According to Maori legend, the gods first heated up the park’s small lake to punish a water-dwelling taniwha for kidnapping a young woman.
Just three kilometres (1.9 miles) away, at Whakarewarewa, 500 hot springs and 65 geyser vents surround what was once the unconquered fortress of Te Puia, founded in 1325 CE. The local Maori who inhabit this ‘living village’ continue to rely upon the traditional, eco-friendly geothermal energy source for heating and cooking. Today, visitors can learn more about Maori culture, music and food, cooked over hot stones, just by the country’s largest geyser. Erupting 15 times a day. Pohutu blasts boiling hot water 30 metres (100 feet) high-fitting for a geyser whose name literally means 'big splash.
The only Maori-owned thermal park, Tikitere, or 'Hell's Gate, has remained holy ground to the Ngati Rangiteaorere tribe. It is Rotorua's most energetic landscape, 20 hectares (50 acres) marked by spitting mud pits, angry geysers, steaming hot springs and the southern hemisphere's largest hot waterfall, the terrifyingly destructive Kakahi.
The black pool is a nightmarish pond, ever set to 93 degrees Celsius (199 degrees Fahrenheit) - so hot, it's used to cook food. Elsewhere. colourful bacteria known as 'land corals' sprout upon the alien landscape, flourishing from its unusual conditions. Though even in hell, there is paradise, in the form of the Wai Ora and Hells Gate spas, a tantalising set of mud baths and hot springs, simmering with replenishing nutrients.
Another park, Wai-o-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, is a brightly coloured spectacle, where hot springs peacock in various shades of orange, yellow, turquoise and emerald. Not content to choose just one, the Champagne Pool rings its green centre with a skirting of orange. The park's Lady Knox Geyser is set off every morning with a curious trick, discovered by a chain gang in the 1900s: pouring soap into its spout.
Elsewhere in the Hidden Valley, lies one of the world's only two geothermal caves. Ruatapu, or 'Sacred Hole, driving 37 metres (120 feet) underground, into a hot pool named Waiwhakaata, or 'pool of mirrors.
Four of Rotorua's geothermal parks lie on the Te Ara Ahi cycling trail, its off-road sections a pleasant ride even for casual riders. Eager bunnies can even whisk themselves through Redwoods Mountain Park, a 5.600-hectare (13.838-acre) forest. Here, unusual vegetation blooms alongside volcanic craters and steaming rainbow-coloured rocks.
For something a little different, at Waitomo Caves boats drift into the darkness, illuminated by the soft light of glow-worms. A more exciting alternative is to abseil down into the caves. throttling through via zipline, and leaping off underground waterfalls.