Uhh...what's that smell?

Our next stop was the town of Rotorua (try saying that 5 times fast!!). The valley that contains Rotorua has some of the most active geothermal activity on earth. One local said that Yellowstone, Iceland, Kamchatka, Chile, and New Zealand are the only places where geysers can be seen. Is it weird that I've made it to Chile, NZ, and Iceland before Yellowstone? Oh well. On arrival to the town, we were greeted by the local potpourri...sulfur. As the car filled with the stench I began to feel very self conscious...was it the McDonald's I had for lunch?! But since the odor continued to last, I felt better and decided it had to be Justin. It wasn't until we got to the motel and stepped out of the car that I connected the dots. Yeah. Rotorua stunk...literally. It was an assault on the senses whenever the wind blew! I guess the Rotorua Visitors Bureau will never link to this blog :)

The next day we headed out to some of the parks in the area. The day was filled with geysers, boiling mud pits, sulfur caves, neon ponds, and steaming lakes. Since the camera was still broken all the pics were still taken by literally pointing and shooting. This was a little tricky to explain to the lady that spontaneously offered to take our picture, but she was game for it. I think she did a pretty good job...
Throughout the day I was really looking forward to the "Spa at QE" for hot springs & mud baths. Our book gave the place 3 stars (its highest rating) and specifically said "you'll sleep well after it", so I figured it must be paradise. Wrong. When we pulled up to the address, I was in disbelief. The place was all indoors and was connected to the local hospital! It was essentially a clinic with little rooms that had mud bathtubs. Undeterred, we marched inside wearing our swimsuits. The receptionist seemed to gaze at us with disdain. She told us to wait...so we just stared at her for a good 5 minutes until she realized we weren't going anywhere. Once we were able to speak with the woman, she almost laughed at us when we asked if there was any availability. So we left. To say that I was upset would be a huge understatement. I wanted to lounge in outdoor thermal pools under the stars. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK? Ooooh, wow, after typing that I just realized that going back to work will probably be harder than I first thought...haha. Luckily, Justin still had his wits about him and was able to figure out that we could go to the Polynesian Spa instead. Now this was what I had in mind! We lazed around moving from pool to pool for nearly 3 hours! We even got to see a massive full moonrise over the mountains. Now THAT deserves 3 stars!!

:) Ryan