After a short flight (Beechcraft 2 engine turboprop; each of the 20 seats was a window seat) from Auckland I landed at the teenie tiny Rotorua airport. Their baggage delivery system is they drive the luggage cart outside the front entrance and you grab yours.
On the web, ourmotel looked and sounded great. In reality it's a little different. Their heated pool is just a little bigger than the rooftop hottub at the XBase Hostel in Auckland. We had to change rooms because the beds were trampolines in disguise...a sure cause of a big back problem for me. The continental breakfast consists of envelopes of instant coffee, a box of cereal, and 2 pieces of white bread to toast. Disappointing but bearable.
I signed on for a half day tour of the geothermal places in the area of Rotorua. It was really interesting, but the brochure failed to mention that in the first place there was about a 1.5k hike up about 3,000steps, and at the second place it was 2k all steeply downhill. Up to this point my plantar fascitis has been in check...but today was really too much. I came back to the motel, fell on the bed and slept 3 hours. Anyhow, besides the glugging of the mud bubbles, the thermal pool, lakes and streams, there is a geyser that they pour soap bubbles into every morning at 10 so all the tourists can see it erupt. All spectators are sprayed with COLD water...which is weird since I thought geysers were hot. The place is really otherworldly. Each turn of the path is more lovely than the last. The paths along the way are lined with tea tree bushes and tree ferns. Everything is steaming, there are colored pools. One amusing item: their blue lake is now a green lake, since it's become covered with a right red algae.
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