on the second day in rotorua we did a jet boat tour to geysers in the morning and a spa trip to sit in a mud bath and then walk around more geysers in the afetrnoon.

the first tour took us to a few stops en route to the jet boat. the first one was maungakakaramea (rainbow mountain) where i got my first glimpse of sulfur bubbling out of the ground. its strange to see bubbles coming out of what would otherwise be a still lake. the temperature ranges from 80 to 260 degree celcius in and around the geysers. the mountain used to have a lot more active geysers that it does currently. since they had died away quite a bit, more greenery can survive since the ground is not as hot.

the jetboat was fun but it only went at about 80 kph so it wasnt really that fast. we had a boat ride to another geyser park, one of the more spectacle to active sites in rotorua. most of it was steam, as opposed to mud. mud makes really strange noises when it bubbles. and it doesnt look hot either. we walked around the park for about an hour in the baking hot sun. new zealand has the same non existent ozone layer than autralia does. then it was back in the boat. the driver had more of a chance to show off on the way back to and was doing hamilton spins and creating a lot of splashing. haha. it was pretty fun.
as with all tours, we stopped off somehwere to convince the tourists to buy something local. in this case it was honey. im not a huge fan on honey in general, but once in a while it quite good. manuka honey is a big export from new zealand and sells for ridiculous prices in the supermarkets there, hoping for ignorant tourists to walk in. we were told on a previous tour to not buy anything over $5. supermarkets sell 100g jar for $40. at the side of the road or from a farmer one can buy 500g for $5. we got some manuka honey that day. all the places that sell it give away samples.. but they dont have a loaf of bread there, just popsicle sticks.

that afternoon we headed out to hell's gate, the waiora spa. the only place in the country you can take a mud bath. i opted not to take a mud bath and had a mud facial instead. my skin was nice and smooth after that, and thankfully it didnt smell like sulfur. at the spa there is a geyser park that is mostly the mud pools. this place was awesome. i have a lot of video from this walkabout and the bubbling sounds come through really clear. twisted to watch if you have never seen in it the flesh. a lot of the areas around the bubbling mud were stone white and aridly dry. i thought it looked like the surface of the moon from an old 1950s movie. new zealand can double and anywhere in the world, why not the moon too.



hell's gate
bubbling mud pools. 230C

moon surface from a 1950s movie
inert geysers