6. Rotorua; geothermal weirdness

I needed to get to the South Island, fast! Rumours were that the sun was shining there and everyone was having a great time. An intercity bus took me to the next stop south. 

Arriving in Rotorua I decided to walk from the bus stop to the hostel. This 9 minute stagger with my 14 kilo rucksack nearly did for me. I felt my leg bones disintegrating within. This however was a 4 minute improvement on my last PB, which was 5 minutes. I don't think the bag is going to get any lighter, so I'll have to beef up. I was only in Rotorua for one night, and happily I'd booked myself onto a tour of the geothermal Maori village that afternoon. Still raining hard, so the waterproof trousers, jacket and walking boots got their first outing. 

Our Maori guide had a distinctly pissed-off tone for the duration of the tour. Hard to know if this was because it was pouring with rain, the endless stupid questions tourists like to ask, or just her general manner.  'Look folks, don't put your hand in boiling water, ok? if there's steam coming off it, just don't go near it'. I felt #awks and voyeuristic traipsing through the village's community bathing area. Officially Maori communities welcome the interest in their culture... and the income brought in by tourism must be important, but... hmmm. 

Also visiting the Maori village were two fed up german girls who were travelling with a campervan and wanted to be on the South island, but couldn't get a ferry booking. It seems all tourists on the north island now wanted to get to the south island... maybe a campervan on the north island wasn't the dream after all.

That evening I decided to visit one of the spas. The Polynesian spa consisted of a series of different rock-lined pools (looking mainly like garden ponds), but overlooking a large steaming lake... and at sunset, quite charming. Ahhh hot water! In between dips I was having a nice relaxing time, dozing on a heated stone recliner.

This was interrupted by a friendly and very talkative chinese guy, who'd been living in New Zealand for the last 18 years. To my surprise, particularly given the serene setting, this guy turned out to be a fantasist and conspiracy-theorist! He quickly unveiled his key theories. Biden was already dead, he said. The British had covered up the Queen's death for over 6 months. (When I retorted with a '6 months! But why would we do that?' he said 'to get ready of course'. Clearly not aware of Operation London Bridge then, ha!).

Conspiracy-man was telling me something about how he'd worked on the Covid-vaccine and how we'd all have to live in bunkers in the future when I leaned over to see what the woman he was here with was doing. At first I'd felt a bit weird that he was talking to me and paying her absolutely no attention. But looking over I could see she was deeply engaged in scrolling on her phone, with a smile playing around her lips. 'Your turn!' I imagined she was thinking; 'Your turn listening to all this crap'. Back to chinese guy: '... the world is in very difficult times. The only leaders I can see doing the right thing are Putin, Trump and Netanyahu...' Err, WHAT!? I made an escape. Enough relaxation for one night.

Next day, walk through a local park. Mud pools bubbling away at boiling point temperature, guarded only by a little wooden fence! Strange, weird lands. All this geothermal shit makes me feel edgy.







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