Rotorua - May 29-June 1, 2009

We had a 3 day weekend for the Queen's Birthday, so we decided to head down to Rotorua. In the week before we left, Eric's coworkers were telling him that Kiwis call Rotorua 'Roto-vegas'. Even Bradley Cooper is talking about Roto-Vegas in TV ads for his new movie The Hangover. But we couldn't quite get a good reason for the name, so we were very curious as we drove down. Would there be gambling? Tons of neon signs? Crazy partiers? As we drove into town, it looked like any other small New Zealand town (except for the sulphur smell and steam rising from small parks). During our stay we did see a few stores/restaurants with Vegas in the name - Bikes Vegas, Vegas Pizza...but we still did not see any real connection. After we got back, we did a bit of research, and basically it is called Roto-vegas because there are a lot of tour buses and tourist attractions (and extreme sports during the summer). Mmmm, yeah, so someone who has never been to the real Las Vegas somehow got that name to stick but it is far from accurate!
We spent most of the weekend outside despite the cold weather. The first day was pretty overcast but we walked around Lake Rotorua on their Natural Heritage Trail. The shoreline has a lot of geothermal activity, including bubbling mud pools, hot springs, and craters from historic geothermal explosions.
That night it got down below freezing. Most houses/hostels in NZ don't have central heating, just space heaters. Our hostel had a space heater in the main room but not in our room - we were freezing! But the next day was beautiful with clear blue skies, and we headed out to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. In the morning we saw the geyser erupt (they put some soap down it to start it off, just like for Old Faithful at Yellowstone).
Then we walked around the park. Here's Eric in front of the Devil's Bath, which was a crazy green color.The main attraction is the Champagne Pool, the largest hot spring in the area. It is 65m in diameter and 62m deep, and was formed over 700 yrs ago by a hydrothermal eruption. It had some beautiful colors in it, when the steam wasn't blocking the view.
There were numerous craters throughout the park, some with boiling mud in the bottom.
That afternoon we hiked to the summit at Rainbow Mountain Scenic Reserve. It had started to get cloudy and by the time we got to the top the wind was really whipping. The views were great though.
And on the way down we passed by the Rainbow Lakes...That night we stopped to buy a space heater (we needed one for our apt anyway) so that we wouldn't freeze that night. Rotorua has some good restaurants and bars (and they have heat!) so we tried a few different places. Eric had one of his favorite fish and chip meals to date at a small cafe. On our last day we drove around some of the other lakes in the area, including Lake Tarawera, doing a quick hike (and snagging some good ice cream) before heading home.
We had a great weekend (why can't all weekends be 3 days long??) but were happy to be back in our apartment in Auckland where it is nice and warm!