On the Way to Rotorua

Thursday 1 July 2010

Sorry for the delay in writing. So now we are to the second day. We got up at 7:15 and got ready for the 8:30 bus to Rotorua. We were making our sandwiches when I realised our bus did not leave at 8:30, but 8:00. So then we quickly finished our sandwiches and instead of having a leisurely breakfast, we ran downstairs to get to the bus stop. We got to the door and could not open it. I kept trying to turn the handle. The reception was closed until 8:00, so we couldn't ask anyone. Then I noticed a number pad. The reception gave us a code so that we could get in the building after hours, but I didn't know we needed the code to get out of the building! So I punched in the numbers and turned the knob. Nothing happened. I did it again. Still nothing. Then I punched the numbers and pressed enter. Still nothing. Then Mom noticed a big green button that said push and told me to try that. So I did. It worked. I was so occupied on pushing the numbers, I never even noticed the green button.

So then we were flying down the streets. One of Mom's suitcases was off balance, so it kept rocking every time we hit any kind of bump. It made it difficult to roll down the streets. We did make it eventually and hopped on the bus immediately.

We were impressed with the bus. It was actually roomy and quite comfortable. As we were traveling up the North Island, the sights were incredible. We went through Tongariro National Park. The trees and forests were absolutely beautiful. We saw a mountain range with snow all over them. We circled around those mountains. Then we went around Lake Taupo. It was majestic. Alison was actually in Lake Taupo at the time (going skydiving), and I considered texting her that we were there. We only stopped for 5 minutes, so she wouldn't have been able to see us. It was absolutely beautiful though. I was really excited, because I didn't think I would actually ever get to see this lake. I knew this would be my last trip to the North Island, so I was so happy I got to see this lake.

After 7 hours, we made it to Rotorua. The first thing that you notice once you leave the bus is, of course, the smell. Any of you who have ever been to hot springs, geysers, or sulfur areas, you know the smell. Rotten eggs comes to mind. Anyway, we walked to our hostel, which was a really nice hostel. We quickly put everything away, and then rushed outside for a self-guided walk before the sun went down. This was a very touristy town with all the shops and cute streets. Then we went to Kuirau Park, which has a lot of geothermal activity. This park is in the middle of the city and is a popular area, so the geothermal spots are sectioned off by wooden gates. The only problem is, you never know when or where activity might occur. So people have to be on their guard. There were places where there was caution tape around to warn people not to go over there. There was no wooden fence, because there was not enough time to build it. Obviously a lot of recent activity had occurred. Because you never know when or where activity might occur, you have to be very careful where you step. You don't want to scald your feet. Of course as we are walking through this huge park, it starts getting darker. It is hard to see where our feet were being placed, so we tried to rush out of the park. Naturally, the place we had to go through was soaking wet and muddy. So we had to tread lightly, desperately hoping it was not geothermal activity, but the cause of recent rain. Fortunately, we did not fall in any hot springs.

Once outside the park, we started going around the park and up to Lake Rotorua. Once we had the view of Lake Rotorua, we had the view of residential areas. The striking thing about this area is that geothermal activity is literally in people's backyards. We could see steam rising out of yards. Why people would want to have property on an unstable and unpredictable land is beyond me.

Then we walked to the Government Gardens. It was hard to see at night, but it was still very pretty. After this, it was way to dark to see anything, so we headed back to our hostel for our dinner and got ready for our Rotorua tour tomorrow.