Kia Ora!
That’s Maori for Hello/Welcome.

We are in Rotorua, a pretty town on a lake that is surrounded by hot springs, geysers, spas and camp grounds. Eoin and I made our way down from Auckland yesterday in our new car. He only drove on the wrong side of the road once, and every now and then I have to tell him when he is about to go off the road though. Other than that he is doing a good job.

Today was pretty busy, but very fun. We woke up early, around 8 AM, and headed over to the Buried Village. The New Zealanders call it the “Pompeii of New Zealand”. I wouldn’t go that far, but it was nice. In 1886 a volcano erupted in Ta Wairo and covered the town with mud, lava and ash. Almost everyone perished. They have excavated a few of the houses and shops and you can walk around the fields. They also have a museum that tells you a bit about the people that lived there and shows artifacts that were found in the ruins.

Then we went to Wakite Thermal Springs. That was amazing. It’s about 5 pools that are filled with hot natural spring water. They also have private pools (hot tubs basically) and those were nice too. It was very relaxing and definitely something I will do again. We were at the pools for about an hour or so and then drove a mile up the road to Wai-O-Tapu.

Wai-O-Tapu has geysers, boiling mud, sulfur caves, water falls and lots of smelly pools. It smelled horrible, like bad chicken soup, wet dog and eggs. The water in some parts was a turquoise color, and there were random steaming rocks all over the paths. They also have craters that were formed by acidic steam rising out of the ground. It was very beautiful but again, smelled horrible.

It is about 5:30 now and I am so tired from all we did today. It was a great day though and it was worth every penny (er…dime…they don’t have pennies here) spent.
Here are some pictures from our adventures today.
Talk to you all soon. If you want a postcard send me your address, I left my address book at home.

Alexa








A fireplace that was left in Te Wairo at one of the Hotels.

A waterfall at Te Wairo.
The Devils Bathtub at Wai-O-Tapu.