There is something in the Air

We drove our car on the “Thermal Motorway” to Rotorua, which is the volcanic center of New Zealand. BTW: We had a really hard time remembering all the Maori town names. But from now on I will always use a mnemonic to remember. Like Rotor (helicopter) ua (You are). The long word on the picture below is still too hard for me to remember.

On the way we stopped in Hobbiton (Hob, bit and on). We joined the expensive but well organized tour. We learned a lot how they filmed the different scenes and why they have hobbit holes in different sizes. Gandolf is filmed in front of a small hobbit house to make him look bigger, while Hobbits are filmed in front of big houses. We saw the big tree with all the artificial green colored leaves and finally the pub (The Green Dragon), where they served excellent cold beer. This beer is a special brew for Hobbiton.

We headed further to Rotorua. Michelle looked at me, I looked at Michelle. We both said:  “It wasn’t me”. And our dog Penny, the fart machine, is far away in California. The whole town smells like …

We went for a walk in the park. Every few meters they have thermal activities, which means bubbling water or mud holes. Smelly steam comes out of the earth.

The city is also called Rotovegas, because of all the Hotels and Motels along the street. They are all lite up at night. Our little Motel looked like this and Michelle and Uli took a bet. Are the little animals reindeer or Easter bunnies. Guess who won?

On the next day we went to the Waimangu volcanic valley which was formed in 1886, when a big eruption happened. It was a 2 hour walk along the value showing all the volcanic activities. A 75 degree Celsius hot turquois lake, a smoking mountain, a hot stream and boiling waters.

The trail (or track how Kiwis would call it) ends at a lake, where lots of birds can be seen. There were many black swans. They are not black, because they got burned by the volcanic activities. All the swans I saw so far in New Zealand are dark.

I do not know why. Maybe because everything is different in New Zealand. It is night during our daytime, it is summer during our winter, cars drive on the left side of the road and swans are black instead of white.

It was a warm day and we were looking forward to a swim. So we went to a place called Kerosene Creek. The last 2 km were on a dirt road with holes bigger than the ones in pockets (caused by the high prices for entrance fees). But it was worth it. It is a little creek with waterfalls and swimming pools in a nice forest. The water is 37 degrees warm. Under the waterfall was a nice currency with bubbles. This was probably the place, where the first whirl pool was invented.

So we had a very good time in the smelly area, but to be honest. We were also happy to get some fresh air, after we left Rotorua.