It needs to be said here that this day was a veritable GOLDMINE for entrants in the SPOTD award.

We began our day with a visit to the Whakarewarewa thermal park ($18NZD each) in the centre of Rotorua, which is a large area containing more spectacular geysers and boiling mud than the surrounding area. The site is also set up as a Maori arts training centre, and there are several Maori buildings set up for tourists to walk through.

Guided tours began at 10:00am, so we went for a wander around the place by ourselves, to fill in the hour before we got the official version. There had not been a lot of rain in the Rotorua area recently, and so the boiling mud we saw was not streaming like it does when it has a higher moisture content, but it was definitely plopping happily away. Some of the mud was leaving the ground and being thrown up to 2 feet away, so it was still quite interesting to watch.

The Pohutu geyser is a continuous gush of hot water and steam leaving the ground in impressive fashion. As the water leaves the ground, it is just below boiling (98C), running over rocks to enter the stream below at a comfortable 34-38C. This geyser also helped us in our quest to find our SPOTD, which will be elaborated on further through this page.

As we walked through the thermal area, we were struck by the radiant heat. It had not occurred to us, despite being quite obvious once we thought about it, that ground hot enough to have boiling water and mud at the surface was going to be warm. There was about a 6-8C temperature difference between the general temperature inside the park compared to outside, we estimated, and made us very warm indeed.

At 10:00am, we went back up to the main entrance to go on the guided tour. It was at this time we realised that Whakarewarewa not actually the official name of the site we were at. It was actually an abbreviated form of Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahio - which translated into something about a chief (named “aawahio”) and an “uprising of the war parties”.

The Maori arts training centre was explained as a place where men aged 18-30 could come and do a three-year course in carving, and women in the same age group could come and learn how to weave clothes over the same time period. Only Maori people were allowed to enrol, and a “teaspoon-full” of Maori blood was enough to satisfy the requirements, but you had to be able to show where the “teaspoon-full” came from.

Our guide was showing us around a gallery of carvings and heard a distinctive tap-tap-tapping noise in the next room where the carving took place. She instructed us to walk through a certain doorway and we would be able to watch carving in process. We all dutifully followed her instructions and walked into the room, only to find - two blokes fixing a door handle on the office in there… Although Di and Trav found this to be hilarious, we found it even more amusing when some people whipped out cameras and actually took pictures of them fixing the door…

After a tour through the rest of the village, we jumped on board a little shuttle-train thing called a Whaka and went for a ride around the park we had walked around earlier. It was during this twenty minute period that we were bombarded with people all wanting the title of SPOTD, explained in greater detail at the end.

After our tour, we departed Rotorua and headed south for Taupo. On the way there, we stopped at a geothermal power station, which had an enormous chimney that could be seen for miles before we got close to the turnoff.

We also stopped at a free (yes, something touristy that cost nothing!) thermal area known as Craters of the Moon. Personally, we think they looked nothing like craters on the moon, but still, they were big holes in the ground, so it’s a good a name as any for the place. There were boardwalks to get around on, to prevent people from suddenly sinking into soft ground and getting scalded because apparently new vents were opening all the time. There was originally only one vent in the area before a large power station began operations in the mid 1950’s and started drawing down the groundwater. With less water to heat, the boiling process was made easier and new vents began to appear all over the place, so it is technically a thermal park that exists because of human intervention.

Upon reaching Taupo, we grabbed lunch and headed north again to Orakei Karako (about 20 minutes north), which we had driven past on the way down, but we knew it as “Hidden Valley”, so had not realised we’d gone past it. It was another thermal park, similar to Whakarewarewa, but with far less commercialism. It cost $17 each, and contained geysers, boiling water and bubbling mud, plus a short ferry ride across the river to get to it. The thermal features were similar to Whakerewarewa, but at the same time, quite different. The colours at Orakei Karako were quite vivid, ranging from gold, red, green, blue, white, brown, tan, and orange, compared to the dull brown colour predominant at Whakerewarewa. These colours, coupled with the lack of idiots, and peaceful walks through the native bushland made it far better value for our money, so we’d recommend it over the more commercial version in Rotorua.

Due to a bit of rain, and more forecast, we upgraded our accommodation from a tent to a cabin, so as not to get wet all night. We arrived on the right night because the following night was the beginning of a weekend-long cycling festival in the town and our cabin would cost $100 for the night, not $39 which we paid. For that, we got everything supplied except linen (7 beds, all plates, cooking utensils, glasses, plates, cutlery, table and chairs, etc). We also got a discount to the thermal pools across the road, and so we went and had a swim in one of the private pools (~ 8′ x 6′ in size), but it was so hot that we had to get out before the 20 minute limit was up.

Now we reach the SPOTD award section.

Our first entrant was an American tourist sitting opposite us in the Whaka shuttle. He was lowering himself into the seat, when he suddenly froze about two inches above the seat and exclaimed in a loud voice : “Oh! I’d best be careful not to sit down on my floppy!”. We looked at each other in amusement and snickered quietly away when he pulled a floppy disk for his digital camera out of his back pocket. For some reason, he never picked up on the fact that what he had just said could be taken two ways, and seemed quite puzzled by our hilarity. We immediately decided that anyone who could produce a line like that had to be our SPOTD, but as it turned out, he was to be outdone minutes later.

Entrant #3 for the title was a second American tourist talking to his friends as we walked back to the main entrance after the tour. They were deciding what to do next, and organising their plans, as he asked (in the traditional obnoxious American tourist loud voice) “What time was the midday Maori concert again?”. Now, I think we’ve all seen the email which lists stupid questions and comments to park rangers, and one of them is “What time does the 9 o’clock train leave?”. Until this day, I figured that was a made-up question, but now, thanks to entrant #3 for SPOTD, I know that such a mentally-deficient question is possible.

Entrant #4 for the title was a local girl, and our first Kiwi entrant of the trip. At the bakery in Taupo where we stopped for lunch, she managed to get completely confused doing some simple mathematics to work out the bill, despite using an automated cash register. She added up what we’d purchased and asked for $6.20, whereupon Trav handed over $10.20 to pay for it. She took the money, and worked out that we were somehow supposed to receive $4.80 change. Trav corrected her on it, and we had to go through it twice before she would believe that was only $4.00 difference between $10.20 offered and the $6.20 charge. It was not until we got out of the store that Di pointed out the other problem with her mathematical talents. According to her,

$2.90 + $2.90 + $1.60 + $1.60 = $6.20

so she was certainly not having a very good day at all, and qualified herself for the SPOTD.

The more astute among you will realise that there was no entrant #2 listed above. This fellow was left until last because all the stupidity above was not not enough to take the title role on offer. We encountered him at the Whakarewarewa thermal park in between the two American tourists, and this entry was also from a tourist, although he was Japanese, on what appeared to be a bus tour. As mentioned earlier, walking around the thermal park, one was certainly aware that there was a great deal of heat involved, with the ground feeling warm to the touch, and steam blowing everywhere, making it feel like a sauna. At times, the steam coming off the Pohutu geyser was thick enough that we could not see through it, as the heated solution mixed with the cooler air.

All throughout the park, there were wooden safety rails to prevent people from falling into boiling mud pools, or getting too close to steam vents, for our own protection. This Japanese fellow did not even seem to notice the safety rails though, and as he walked toward the Pohutu geyser, it was a fluid motion from walking to climbing the rails in order to get a closer view. I am sure we’ve all been somewhere in a park or near a cliff where there is a safety rail and one person just HAS to get on the danger side of it. Usually though, they walk up to the rail, have a look each way and then climb over. This fellow did not even seem to notice the rail (or the steam!) and it was a smooth fluid transition from walking, to being on the other side, about to wander up to the geyser.

Fortunately for him, his group noticed and yelled to him, stopping him just inches from putting his foot down in ankle-deep 80C water, which would have scalded him quite horribly. They had to keep talking to him for about 30 seconds and he was arguing the toss with them, obviously saying that he just wanted to get a better look, before he finally (and unhappily) climbed back over to the correct side. SPOTD? I think we have our winner. Nothing could top this for the day, and the other three entrants were unfortunately losers to this fellow. On another day, they could have won the title, but the standard was just too high for them on this day.

Onward to Wellington tomorrow…

Categories: NZ 1999, Travel