We made it to Rotorua yesterday after some time in the car. On our way we broke up our drive stopping at some small towns to browse around and also at Lake Taupo, a beautiful lake that is a resort town. There were lots of families there now that all the kids are off of school.
Last night we settled in to a really pretty hotel called "Princes Gate Hotel". It's has a victorian look to it and is decorated really nice for the holidays. We went to an Irish Pub lastnight and caroused around town.
This morning we were off to go Zorbing. Luke and I both crawled into a gigantic rubber ball which was filled with water and were sent rolling down a large hill. What a blast!! It's the only place that the Zorb is available so we had to do it!
Rotorua is also known for it's thermal activity, healing mineral waters, and surrounding lakes, rivers and springs. We went to Wai-o-taupo Park after Zorbing and saw amazing craters, mud pools, geysers, etc. It was quite a large area filled with disturbances in the earth's crust and it was pretty impressive to see all the things that we all learn back in 4th grade science class in regards to the earth and what it is made of. The earth's surface is very, very thin in this region so all of these have developed over many, many years. The sulfur that comes through makes the whole town smell like sulfur/rotten egg. It's all part of the experience. I smelled it rolling over in my sleep at night even!! How unique of a city. It's rather annoying to hear people/tourists say "ugh, it wreaks"---ummm, i'm pretty sure you decided to come here to rotorua and heard that it smells like that for a reason.
