When you first arrive in Rotorua the sulphur smell is overwhelming - and the steam puffing out from little vents everywhere - in parks, yards, streets, houses, lakeside, footpaths - is a bit alarming.
However within an hour or so you don't notice it so much and it becomes just part of the exciting Rotorua geo-thermal experience.
Geysers that 'play' - erupt - regularly throwing up great quantities of boiling water into the blue sky. Boiling mud pools everywhere. A big beautiful blue lake which steams and bubbles at the edges. Maori culture predominates here so admire the traditional carvings on houses and buildings throughout the city. Visit the beautiful Rotorua Museum - a wondrous mix of Tudor and Maori architecture.
You can cook as the locals do by dropping a flax bag of food down a small steam vent and pulling up after a few minutes. Relax in the hundreds of naturally warm spas - the local mineralised water is wonderful for all aches and pains, and the mud once cooled is a world-famous skin treatment mudpack facial.
Rotorua also offers some great adventure activities - cruise the lake, ride the cable-car, fish for trout, visit theme-parks - play golf to your heart's content on several courses. Go to a traditional Maori village and watch carvers at work, enjoy a Maori concert. There's something for everyone here. A must see!
The heart of the North Island - at its very centre - is Lake Taupo - a very deep water-filled volcanic crater. When this volcano last erupted - hundreds of years ago - the ash went high into the stratosphere and fell around the globe. Diaries and reports from the time record the event in far off lands. It was one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in history.
Today it is a large and deep lake, full of rainbow and brown trout. Anglers come from all around the world to fish in its waters. The photo shows the three snow capped peaks of Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngaruhoe in the distance.
The pic on the pic above is taken from the other direction and shows the steaming Crater Lake at the summit of Tongariro in the right foreground with a small arm of Lake Taupo in the distance.
This whole area is a mass of volcanic activity past and present. Rotorua is close by and the geo-thermal area between it and Taupo is full of interesting features such as geysers, and boiling mud pools, hot water pools, and power stations which use the ferocious steam to make electricity.
When I was young, once in a while, some poor person would fall in a boiling mud pool or down a geyser - it was horrifying. But now all the hazards are well-mapped and well-fenced so we've had no accidents for a long time.
