Kiyomi and Ren's Excellent Adventures: Rain, rain go away....

December 16 - Rotorua

The last few days have been rain, some non-rain periods, even the occassional sunny breaks, but rain has been more or less the contant. Wake up to rain, drove in rain, had lunch in rain, napped in rain... You're probably getting the idea by now. A general rainy few days, so we decided to head for Rotorua for a couple of days, about a two hour drive from Waitomo Caves. Rotorua is known for its hot pools, geothermal parks and general prehistoric looking landscapes, as well as being an important area for Maori culture. The geological explanation is that there are two colliding plates beneath the land; Maori mythology says that a fire monster was trapped beneath the mountain.

Coming into town, it lived up to its moniker of Roto-Vagas. We drove along a strip of motels, hotels and variety of accomodations complete with some neon signs and advertising splayed about. After the more relative rural environment we'd experienced in NZ so far, it sure was a contrast.

We figured what better place to spend a couple rainy day that splashing around in hot springs, with the added advantage of some indoor available activities (a Maori cultural center, museum, heck, we may even try a little Christmas shopping). The Polyponesian Spa had a family pool that was perfect - a large swimming pool kept at 30 degrees for splashing and playing with a couple of overlooking smaller hot pools (36 and 40 degrees respectively). Whether the weather or the time of day, it wasn't crowded at all, so we indulged in a couple hours of soaking and splashing. I should say going from the 40 degree pool to the 30 degree one was the first time in my life I would ever say that 30 felt chilly!

The next day actually dawned sunny (for the first little while), so we took advantage and headed for one of the geothermal parks in the area. Wai-o-tapu bills itself as a "geothermal wonderland" and is one of the many cmmercial parks in the area. There are, of course, undeveloped hot springs as well, but we decided to go with some that had paths and walkways to prevent little explorers from forging a new route.

We explored bubbling cauldrons, burbling mud, bearren wastelands and volcanic craters. The whole area around Rotorua is awash in hot pools and spas because it sits on an area of geo-thermal activity. Yup, underground magma creates some pretty intereting topography. It looked what I imagine the surface of the moon to be, but with heat! The gases escaping of the seething rivers of heat underground create this fantastical colours - bright neon orange, lime green - around the pools themselves, but also colour the leichen growing in the brush, making for otherworldy hues in the forested areas. And of course, all of it had that wonderous smell of sulfur! In fact, most of Rotorua smells a little like spoiled eggs. We had been warned before coming that the town smelled pretty bad, but we found we got used to it pretty quickly. Kiyomi did, however, walk around the thermal park trying not to breath out of her nose and periodically announcing "it's stinky!" As for Ren, he didn't notice the smell. He did however run aruond launching himself at most reacheable water sources and letting everyone know within a 200 meters or so vicinity if it was hot or cold. The only downside is that our timing was off for visiting the park. There is a geyser in the park that is set off every day at 10:15 (apparently they can do it with a bar of soap), and we arrived at exactly the same time. We weren't interested in the geyser, but by the time we were entering the park, all the geyser gazers were also shuffling onto the parthways, so it was a tad crowded.

Leaving Wai-o-topo, there is a short turn off to a viewpoint for the Mud Pools. It might surpise you to learn, watching burbling mud is kind of mesmorizing. The sun was still out, it was warm and really rather entertaining to watch mud burp, blop and skip across a pond pond. Well, ok, Kohji and I were mesmerized, the kids only found it fun that we got to use bathroom words to talk about mud.

Our next stop was Te Paui, a commercial Maori cultural center built beside a thermal park and geyser. We were a little skeptical at first, but the park proved to be almost more interesting than Wai-o-tapu (at least to me). More exposed, barren and generally otherworldly. There was also a nice display of Maori legends from the area, a reconstucted Maori village and a traditionally carved Maori meeting house. This one also had the added advantage that our timing was much better. There was a Maori cultural presentation that we opted out of, but most people were watching while we wandered the park, so he almost had it to ourselves. We also managed to catch the resident geyser in full flow (apparently it goes once or twice an hour). All of this just before the weather set in again.

The kids ended the day by splashing around in the little thermal spa (aka hot tub) at the holiday park we were staying in and then tearing around the playground with a new friend they had made (Max from England). Thoroughly exhausted, they actually fell asleep before 10 (it's been a bit of a struggle trying to get them to sleep before then).

The kids are starting to miss their friends a fair bit. Ren keeps tellling us over and over again that he and Gavin (his best buddy at school) fight, but it's ok. Kiyomi has been making drawings of all her friends, and occassionally sees things that she says they will like. I'm sure they are starting to get a little tired of our company and are craving a little time their friends. They are overjoyed everytimg they meet a new playmate and Ren will come running back to our cottage yelling "Mommy, mommy new friend" just in case anyone in the park missed his earlier shrieks of joy.