What time is it there?!

There isn’t much doubt that the most ‘touristy’ parts of the north island are the thermal areas around Lakes Taupo and Rotorua. I actually saw the town referred to as RotoVegas in a local paper in Auckland, and it’s not too difficult to see why as it it seems that everyone with a bit of steam coming out of their land has figured out some way to extract tourist dollars from it!

You can’t come here without going to see some of it though, so we headed off to a couple of the recommended places. Although it all looks quite impressive when you’re standing in front of it steam coming out of the ground doesn’t look that exciting in photos. The Lady Knox Geyser is also a whole lot less exciting when you realise that they chuck soap powder into it just to make sure that it erupts on schedule at 10:15 each day! Bubbling mud pools are a whole different story though, and you’d be surprised how quickly you can snap 200 pictures in the search for the perfect ‘mud shot’!

This being New Zealand, there are of course a wide range of activities available to help you injure yourself in exciting new ways. In fact, if you look at the ‘exclusions’ in a ‘backpacker’ travel insurance policy you’ll probably find that in theory you can’t do anything here at all! Take for example Zorbing; for those of you who don’t already know this involves throwing yourself down a hill inside a large plastic ball. If you prefer they won’t even strap you in, they just throw in some cold water to prevent friction burns. And, if that’s not enough, you can try running the whole way down the hill (inside the ball), which will win you a T-shirt! Phil, we know you did it, but neither of us were capable of drinking enough Guinness to make it seem like a good idea, so instead we went for the..... er..... mud bath and spa option. Look, it rained while we were in the (outdoor) bath, doesn’t that count as a dangerous sport?!

There are numerous Maori ‘nights’ available, the Hangi being a feast cooked in the ground (much like the Fijian Lovu). We tried hard to find the most authentic, and one that did actually have some ‘cultural’ content. The guy in the tourist office did his job well and refused to be drawn into recommending one, but by a process of gentle interrogation we managed to select the one which we think he preferred. It turned out to be a good choice, so if you are in the area we can recommend the Mitai night. It was still fairly touristy (obviously), but the host of the evening impressed by being able to greet the tourists from 20 different countries quite convincingly in their own languages. The meal was excellent, although I assume that dessert didn’t feature in a traditional Hangi (unless trifle and swiss roll were ancient Polynesian delicacies!). You also won’t go hungry, and my old Safeway colleagues will understand if I explain that even the ‘Hungry Russian’ would struggle to clear out the buffet!

TIP: Don’t get the clever idea of doing any washing in the hostel laundry, because the water comes out of the local springs, and it all comes out smelling of eggs. Nice. Trust us on this, we are still living with it now!!