And that's why all my clothes smell like sulfur

First full day at Rotorua! Once again, we were not concerned with getting up early since we had nothing firmly planned for the books. Once we did get up we made our way down to the hotel breakfast and once again it was overpriced and nothing very special (although they did have dim sum and I am starting to really grow found of that). But we are starting to come to terms that, despite the convenience—of which we are huge fans being Petersen males, it makes more since to find a restaurant outside of the hotel; especially if you are looking for the full local experience.

Next we made our way to Hell’s Gate! The area was named by George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright when he visited the area and stated that it must be the gates of hell that his theologian colleagues said that he would be passing through if he didn’t change his atheist ways. It always puzzles me when atheists focus so much of their thoughts on religious imagery, but I imagine that is another topic for another blog. Hell’s Gate is a highly active geothermal area in the region that produces boiling pools, hot water lakes and many other eerie phenomena. It his home to the southern hemisphere’s largest hot waterfall and New Zealand’s largest mud volcano – both of which are very impressive to see in person.

 

If St. Peter meets you at the gates of Heaven - Who meets you here?!

It is quite an experience to walk from a green and lush environment right into a barren area smoking from water steaming up from the ground. Then, just as quickly, the trees and grass and flowers decide that it is alright to exist again and you are in a scene that could be described as Eden – to continue with the religious imagery.

I found the waterfall to be particularly mesmerizing. Apparently the Maori warriors would come to the waterfall after battles to heal their physical wounds as well as the spiritual and mental ills that can come with war. It really is a special place – an oasis in the middle of a barren, sulfur infused, landscape. There was a tree growing all around the waterfall that had pink and red flowers that bud very similar to roses but, closer examination shows a much different petal once it is in full bloom.

I would totally hang out here to get myself right - Good call, Maori!

It really was striking, but I didn’t even notice them until I was walking back through the area at the end of the tour. I was too focused on the waterfall itself, and the scene as a whole, to notice the details that made up the entire image. But once I saw them, I was as equally enthralled with their accent as I was of the waterfall centerpiece of this wonderful example of nature – truly beautiful.

Just one more dimension to the beauty of the area.

In addition to the tour of the geothermal activity, Hell’s Gate also offers mud and sulfur spas to rejuvenate and relax. I’ve never much subscribed to the notion of needing such things, but Tyler seemed to be up for getting the full Hell’s Gate experience and the price seemed reasonable, so after we made our way around the geothermal activity tour, we set out to enjoy a mud bath spa and sulfur spa treatment next. It was certainly amusing to see Tyler covered in spa mud from head to toe! I imagine I looked just as amusing too. But we left the phones/cameras in our tub lockers due to concerns of sulfur corroding the metal so you will just have to take my word on that.

Go on! Tell him spas aren't manly!

Once we had sufficiently adjusted our chakras, or whatever we were doing there, we drove up the road a little to the buried village of Te Wairoa. On June 10, 1886 Mount Tarawera erupted in the early hours of the night and covered the surrounding area, including the village of Te Wairoa, in 6 to 7 feet of ash and mud creating New Zealand’s not-quite-as-cool modern era version of Pompeii. I did enjoy the tour and certainly learned a lot about New Zealand’s history, but it wasn’t quite what I had built up in my head so I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Not that it wasn’t worth it – because it was! I just found myself saddened about the loss of the Pink and White Terraces and trying to imaging what they might have looked like, more than I actually enjoyed the archaeology.

June 10, 1886 - Probably wasn't their most favorite day here.

The Pink and White Terraces were formed from a millennia of silica-rich geyser water pouring down the hill slope and slowly depositing the silicates, forming beautiful terrace shaped formations. They were considered to be the Eighth Wonder of the World at the time and thought to be the largest such formations on the planet . . . that is until the eruption of Mount Tarawera destroyed them – Like Mother Nature spending eons creating a beautiful work of art and then, in an instant, saying, ‘Just kidding’ and taking an erasure to it.

Seriously! What I wouldn't have given to see these before they were destroyed.

As it turns out, I was beginning to get sick too, so that may have had something to do with not really enjoying the buried village as much as I thought I would too. But by the time I got to the hotel I was not up for much anything so I turned in early, in the hopes I would beat the sick before it had a chance to fully develop. 

A Trek into Middle Earth

After the very adventurous day we had yesterday, today started a little on the late side. We had our usual breakfast sandwich at the little pastry shop and slowly packed all our stuff to check out of the hotel. We managed to get everything ready and checked out right at the hotel’s 10am check-out time. They let us stow our bags at the front while we went to exchange a bit more money for the remainder of our trip in New Zealand.

We weren’t supposed to pick up the rental car until noon, but we figured that the rental place might appreciate if we came early on the off chance that they had everything ready to avoid the same bottleneck that happened with all the groupon people at the hotel during check-in. So we chartered a cab and were on our way shortly thereafter.

The rental place is called Jucy, which is really an awkward word to use in a sentence when food is not involved – and let’s be honest, sometimes it is a bit awkward even when food is involved. But they had our car ready when we arrived and we were out the door with minimal effort on our part. We decided to rent a GPS too, so as not to rely on our memory and questionable satellite coverage on our phones; which greatly improved the entertainment value of the drive listening to our new friend tell us where to turn in a New Zealand accent. It ended up being pretty handy and definitely worth the extra money. The system would chime in throughout the trip when things were coming up that required a little more attention and talked us through exactly how we should react with plenty of time to do so.

And then we were off to our next stop in our New Zealand adventure – Rotorua. But first, a small detour to a small hamlet in Middle Earth known as Hobbiton!

We found out that the day before was Bilbo’s birthday and we were more than a little miffed that we had missed it. But then I reminded Tyler that Bilbo would certainly not have any issue with celebrating his birthday twice and we felt a lot better about our tardy arrival.

We were certainly ready for Party Business!!

We made a pit stop for lunch in a small village called Gordonton, at a small little café known as the Firepot. After taking one look at today’s special, we both knew what we would be ordering – Ribs served with Kumara Fries and Coleslaw! Our plates arrived relatively quickly and we were ready to enjoy our meals when the waitress also brought out a bowl of water with a lemon wedge for both of us. We thanked her for the new items and as she walked away we looked at each other with the same puzzled look on our faces.

‘What do you reckon we are supposed to do with that water?’

‘I’m not entirely sure, maybe we are supposed to dip our fingers in it to get the BBQ sauce off our hands?’

‘That’s kind of what I was thinking too, but I imagine we might get some pretty funny looks if we dip our hands in it and that is not what the bowls are for.’

‘True, but to be fair, we will probably get strange looks either way we use them if it was not the appropriate use.’

I figure we had a 50/50 chance of getting it right here.

Sound logic. So we made our best educated guess and went with it – Sidenote: Lemon and warm water does pretty well at getting BBQ sauce off of one’s fingers.

Hobbiton really is a magical place! It is in the heart of absolutely beautiful country, with rolling green hills accented with an appropriate number of trees. They really did an incredible job of recreating this little town. I really can’t do it justice in my description so I won’t try past this.

Try not to be happy surrounded by views like this!

Our tour guide seemed like he would fit in quite nicely amongst the Hobbits. He was extremely excited about everything and anything that was said seemed to make him happy – almost giddy. He even talked with a slight lisp that seemed to be right out of a caricature of middle earth.

I mean, I guess I could get pretty giddy too if I got to hang out here every day!

All in all, the tour was amazing and a must see for anyone! Even if you are not a big, huge Tolkien geek, at the very least you get to see beautiful country and make your Lord of the Rings geek friends completely jealous! Tyler and I were a bit disappointed with the time the tour spent at the Green Dragon though. We felt a bit rushed drinking our complementary beer and I couldn’t help but feel a bit remiss that we could not try all four of the varieties that were offered. They had food there too, which makes me believe that you could have found a tour during the day that spent a bit more time at the Green Dragon – It just wasn’t our tour. Tyler concluded that they should make a special ‘Dwarf’ tour of Hobbiton where they take you to an overlook of the town and say, ‘Look, there’s Hobbiton. Now, everybody, let’s get some ale at the Green Dragon!’

Here's to life - The Hobbit Life, that is!

He had clearly given it a lot of thought, explaining further how he had thought of first calling it the Drunk Hobbiton Tour, but that probably wouldn’t fly with marketing. But if you called it the Dwarf Hobbiton Tour, everyone would be able to read into what you meant.

After a quick jaunt into the gift shop we were back on the road and on our way to Rotorua. It was getting dark so we did not get to see much of a view, but there were two parts where the vegetation grew up and over you so that you were driving through a living tunnel. I love it when that happens! It is such a foreign concept to this desert rat.