Rotorua, New Zealand, 27 - 28 February 2008 Rotorua is the kind of place that you smell before you actually see! The earths crust is very thin here and there are numerous parks where you can watch spurting geysers, bubbling mud pools, steaming vent.... oh yeah and you can smell the sulphurous discharges. "Was that you???" "Oh, that's disgusting". Don't let this put you off though, Rotorua was a really unique and interesting place. We didn't do much the night we arrived other than dine out on what was a really poor meal (Turkish), you win some you lose some. We washed the taste out of our mouths with some pints at the Irish Bar afterwards. The next day we went to the free park in the centre of town and witnessed our first, aforementioned, bubbling pools etc. Then it was onto the Maori Village Whakarewarewa where we saw how (and still) these people lived, cooked, practiced religion etc. The visit culminated in a Maori Cultural performance (our 2nd since arriving in NZ). Once the tribe had completed their final piece, the HAKA, they invited the men in the audience up to give it a go. Don't worry folks, I did the Irish proud, I was ferocious.
As if we hadn't had enough, we signed up for another Maori performance that night. We visited a village outside of town called Mitai. There were approx 200 guests broken up into groups of 100. I, Dave, was chosen to be the chief of one group. Claire (christened Miss Chief) was pleased with this as there were certain privileges that went along with this new status. She was front row centre while I was up on the stage being accepted by the tribe into their community. I even had to make a speech to the Maori chief which was a little unnerving as I had very little time to think about what I would say! the whole evening went off swimmingly though and after the Maoris had done their thing on stage all us paying guests sat down to a delicious Hangi meal. This is where they bury their food (chicken, potatoes, lamb etc) in the ground and the thermal heat slowly cooks it and imparts an earthy (in a good way) taste to it. .
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Before we left Rotarua the following day we visited "Hells Gate". This is another highly active thermal area. It is a fascinating place. George Bernard Shaw (well known Irish playwright) visited the park in 1906 and apparently commented "I wish I had never seen the place as it reminds me too much of the fate theologians have promised me". The inhabitants at the time really liked him and allowed him to name many of the pools in the park. 
Having seen enough thermal springs and Maori cultural performances to last a lifetime we left Rotorua bound for the glowworms of the Waitomo Caves.
