Residents in Aotearoa

Rotorua, nicknamed, "Sulfur City"

The Pohutu Geyser as seen from "Allie's Hotel" in Rotorua

The first time that Allie took the boys to Rotorua, she chose wisely and checked in to the one hotel in the city that provides this view from all those rooms situated on the 'thermal valley' side of the hotel. Can you imagine opening the drapes across the sliding glass door to your balcony and discovering that you just happen to have the largest geyser in Rotorua in your 'backyard?'  I'll never forget it when she skyped with us one day and said, "Guess what the view is beyond our balcony?" and then turned her computer to face it.  

This is the Pohutu geyser and when it spews boiling sulfurous smelling water, it can be heard in many parts of the city. I know because I could  hear it from the hotel we stayed at when we were in town this past November for the races.  Allie did the 10k and Mel ran the 1/2 marathon.  

Allie's hotel also had a separate building that housed private thermal pools that rented by the 1/2 hour.  She and the boys enjoyed the mildest of the 5 temperature levels available.  It was an eight by 10 foot pool and about 18 inches deep. Warm water continually flowed in from one end and the overflow drained from the other.  

On our recent trip Allie, Dianne, Jeanne and I waded in a public footbath, located along a footpath, that winds through a public park. One of the other features of the park is a garden grown specifically for the blind. All the plants in it are especially good smelling and were planted to maximize the contrast of smells as one follows the winding paths through it. 

Aahhhhh, it really did feel very good.  You can just see the corner of a somewhat deeper pool next to the white pole at the right side of this photo.  In this pool too, the water flows through continuously.  

Just close your eyes and breath deeply...I'll lead you along.

So, what's the story behind all this free heat just below the surface? 

Lake Rototua and the city of the same name, are 130 miles southeast of Auckland. The lake was formed about 240,000 years ago from the crater of a volcano. It's about 80 square kilometers. Can you imagine the scale of the volcanic explosion that took place from that huge an area?

No thanks...

Clearly, the volcanic activity that formed Lake Rotorua has lasted a very long time. It's still hot down there. Many of the hotels and even homes in town have hot-water heat. We saw a line of about half a dozen homes near the park I mentioned earlier that the city has condemned, because they appear to be slowly settling into boiling mud fields. I saw that one of these home owners had, years ago, built a backyard oven fueled by the never ending furnace beneath his yard. (These were homes that were probably built back in the 1950's.) 

One always takes impressions of a place away with them when they leave a vacation spot. In the case of Rotorua, the impressions are more than just fond memories, photos taken or keepsakes purchased at one of the many souvenir shops that line the main street. Over the course of a couple of days in 'Smell City', (my nickname for it) airborne sulfur will have found it's way into your clothing, hair, skin and sinuses. It takes a couple of days (and showers) to leave all of Rotorua behind. Even as I write this ending, it seems to me that I smell faint echos of Pohutu.                                                                                                          -djf

While in Rotorua, we attended Sunday Mass at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Parish.  It struck me as very fitting that St. Michael should be the patron of a parish situated so close to the sounds and smells of "hellfire and brimstone".  -JF