What Is It? What Do You Smell?...Man Flesh!

     It is Sunday, March 11th, 2012 and I have arrived in Rotorua. On my first night I met another solo traveller (Ted) from France. He’s pretty cool. Really nice guy who is renting a car. We hit things off and yesterday we went to Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach. 

     In my mind I pictured Cathedral cove being a cool spot along the beach. I’d drive into Hahei then walk down the beach to the cove. OH BOY was I wrong. you have to drive up a mountain, park your car then walk 30-45 minutes to get to the cove. And this is no easy walk you walk up and down the side of this mountain for 1km. It was awesome walking through the forest/jungle listening to the birds and hearing the waves crash against the rocks but the hills are killer. What made it worse was I decided to wear sandals that day. Eventually we got there and the payoff was totally worth it. Down on the beach, the Pacific right in front of you and massive cliffs and Cathedral Cove all right there tucked away. One thing I’ve noticed in New Zealand is that everything is a lot bigger than you think it is. Looking at pictures your like ok yeah big rock...NO NO. Once your standing in near them you get a sense of perspective of just how gigantic this place really is. Another example, at Cathedral Cove I decided to go into the Pacific. The locals said it was a calm day and the waves were 7-10ft high (and that was when they were breaking ON THE BEACH). 

     After the exhausting walk back we drove to Hot Water Beach. The highlight of Hot Water Beach is, when it is low tide you get as close to the seawater as you can and dig a hole in the sand without letting the ocean water come into your hole. So you dig a hole that you can sit in and the ground water is literally boiling in places. We dug our hole and it was about the same temperature as a hot tub. Then we dug another hold beside and there was steam coming up from the water. We merged it with our pool and the temperature of our pool rose. But where we dug to get the boiling hot water was soo hot, you actually couldn’t even touch it with a toe. I TRIED and my foot felt like burning for most of the day. Coolest thing ever. On top of that it was a cloudy day and I still got a sun burn. It was really cool to be at Hot Water Beach on a Saturday and see all the locals bringing their families too. 

     Around 4pm we called a hostel in Rotorua and got a room for the night. We drove for 2.5 hours and made it. People say that Rotorua smells like eggs because of all the natural hot springs and sulphur in the air. Yep that is correct, it smells. (BTW not like the egg smell you wake up to in the morning, rotten egg smell). 

     We got to our hostel, unpacked, ate, got settled in. Since it was a Saturday night I figured something was going to be happening somewhere, it’s the end of their summer so somethings going on. Sure enough free concerts along the lake! I walked down to the lake and watched the concerts. Excellent music, no clouds in the sky, no light pollution, stars and the moon above. It was terrific. After the concerts they announced fireworks! The fireworks started and it was the best display I’ve ever seen. No building around just the night sky and maybe 4 street lamps. Incredible!! I’ve never seen fireworks literally light up a sky like that before. 15 minutes of large big fireworks going off made it a night to remember.

     From here I will probably stay in Rotorua for a week, Hobbiton is 40 minutes away and I can also Zorb in this city. Also I’ve been on the move quite a bit so I think it will be nice to sit and relax.