Winter is finally here in New Zealand. Not quite winter like in Canada but the wind and rain (oh the rain!) make it difficult to do much outdoors. Right now the average daytime temperature is around 10-15 degrees. And it rains almost every single day. Not too chilly but the nights can get down to around one degree, which makes for a cold sleep when you don't have central heating! We decided this past weekend to take a little road trip to Rotorua, about 3.5 hours NE of New Plymouth to try and escape the wet weather. Rotorua is one of the biggest tourist destinations on the North Island. It's known for its geothermal activity, geysers, hot mud pools, and New Zealands best mountain biking! You can also go zorbing, white water rafting, parasailing, zip lining and many, many other activities. Kiwis call it "RotoVegas" because there is so much to do (and spend a lot of money on)!! Unfortunately the unpleasant smell of all the geothermal activity is found everywhere in Rotorua and things just aren't as enjoyable when it smells like rotten eggs. But Tyler will tell you it's all worth it for those amazing downhill bike tracks - and fortunately it wasn't too smelly in the forest :)
Saturday we decided to check out the geothermal activity in Waimangu Volcanic Valley. The geothermal activity here is the result of a volcanic eruption in 1886 and home to the world's largest hot spring! It is also the world's youngest geothermal system. The scenery was gorgeous as always and since it's the middle of winter we pretty much had the whole park to ourselves. The steam emitting from the lake and rocks was mesmerizing and all the different colours in the rock formations was beautiful. It was very educational but I won't bore you with all the details here :)
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| View from the top of the valley. |
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| World's largest hot spring! The water was bubbling so I think it would be too hot to swim in ;) |
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| Stunning Inferno Crater! |
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| Beautiful turquoise waters in Inferno Crater |
After seeing all the geothermal activity we wanted to try out a hot pool of our own. There are a few to chose from in Rotorua but we opted for the one outside of town hoping it would be quieter. Well we showed up to a kids birthday party...just our luck! These hot springs however had three private pools and there just happened to be one available for us, perfect! The private pool was amazing with an open roof and back facing the forest. The sun went down while we were in the pool making our experience that much better. Not only is the thermal water good for sore muscles, all the minerals left our skin feeling super soft. It was a great end to the day.
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| Tyler enjoying our private thermal pool. |
The next day we were up early for a day of mountain biking. We loaded a bus that took us to the top of the mountain which was about a 25 minute ride. I was already feeling uneasy to have to ride my bike down from the top, but when 40 men boarded the bus and I was the only girl, I definitely started to have second thoughts! Turns out I had nothing to worry about as the trail network is extremely well developed with different options for varying degrees of difficulty. We happened to get stuck in the middle of a race that was going on that day so we had to stop often to avoid getting run over. Besides that, we had a lot of fun and I did my best to try and keep up with Tyler. About two thirds down the mountain the Redwood forest starts with beautiful Redwood trees and NZ's iconic ferns covering the forest floor. It was definitely one of the prettiest forests we have ever been in!
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