The Road to Ruin Rotorua is a four hour bus ride from Auckland. Due to all the geothermal activity, the entire city stinks of rotting eggs, although it's not as unpleasant as you might think, and after a while you barely notice it. There are hot springs throughout the town, with the bubbling resembling witches' cauldrons.
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It's signs like this that make me want to jump over the fence
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Accommodation in New Zealand is quite expensive (or maybe I was just spoiled in South America with my £10 palaces), but for some reason, some AirBnBs are a lot cheaper. Which is why I spent my four nights here about 10km away in a wee village called Ngongtaha (I've still no idea how to pronounce it).
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| Ngongtaha and Lake Rotorua |
I was sharing a very modern and comfortable apartment with a Korean mother and daughter who were lovely. I even got an invite to South Korea, although I'm certain that invite might be swiftly rescinded if I was to turn up on their doorstep. Only problem was that it was about 10km outside of Rotorua itself in a village called Ngongotaha that I've still no idea how to pronounce. Thankfully there was an excellent bus service (well, excellent until 6pm, when it stopped being excellent and started being non-existent).
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| I've just walked 10km. Are you guys really going to take the long way round? |
There's plenty to see and do in Rotorua. I was tempted by the zip wires and kayaking but I've done them before, but something I've never done before is travelled on a duck. Their history is quite interesting - the ducks in these pictures were actually built by the Americans in WWII. And they're called ducks because they can go on land and water (but they don't fly, so not that much like a duck).
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| A Duck |
The Duck didn't actually take us into Lake Rotorua - mainly because it's full of catfish (the actual fish, not a fake online persona) and there's a danger of spreading it to other non-catfishy lakes. So instead it took us to a couple of smaller lakes (Lake Tikitapu or the Blue Lake, and Lake Okareka).
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| Another Duck and Lake Okareka |
The Duck also took us round several key landmarks in the city.
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| A key landmark in the city |
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| Another key landmark in the city |
For my final free day here, I hired a mountain bike. I decided to throw caution and budgets out the window and rent an e-bike. And they're brilliant! I was pedalling up steep hills with ease, and returning to base on the main road, I managed to get close to 60km/h. There is a massive mountain bike course/forest near Rotorua which I got hopelessly lost on, but it's a great way to spend a few hours.
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| The view from the top of one of the many mountain bike trails. |
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| The face of mountain biking |
I also popped into a 3rd art gallery thing, which might have been better if I could take photographs from the correct angle. Here's a photo taken from completely the wrong angle.
So that was a short and sweet visit but well worthwhile. Next up - another lake. This time, the largest in Australasia. Lake Taupo.
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