Dec 25th: Activities in Geothermal Rotorua

After a long drive on Christmas Eve, we arrived in Rotorua. As everyone who's been there before will testify, the two things you'll notice as you arrive in the town are: the steam rising from odd places everywhere, and then as you wind your window down to get a better look. the smell! This part of New Zealand is on a joint of two plates of the Earth's crust, so the landscape is formed from volcanic craters, and 300oC streams flow under the ground. Where the water springs and gas rise to the surface you'll see geysers, boiling mud pools, lakes of steam, colourful mineral deposits in the streams, and you'll smell the characteristic 'rotten eggs' smell of hydrogen sulphide.

We had 48 hours in the town, staying at the very comfortable 'Silver Fern Motel' on the road out to Taupo. On Christmas Eve we knocked ourselves up a spag bol (heaven for me as this was my first home-cooked meal for over three weeks!) and watched a New Zealand film: The World's Fastest Indian.

Waking up on Christmas Day when you're 12 hours or more ahead of everyone else you know is a bit strange. After wishing each other a Merry Christmas, we couldn't really complete the morning's routine of phoning the family and wishing them the same as they were probably all in the pub enjoying their Christmas Eve. Also, we'd given each other presents back in Auckland and left them there to reduce packing!

So instead we focused on our first activity of the day: visiting Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters) Thermal Wonderland. Rotorua is New Zealand's top tourist destination due to its proximity to Auckland, and it gets over 1m visitors a year. So the entire town is geared up to catering for tourists, and it must be tough for the residents of the town having to share everything with visitors (the town centre seemed to filled with tourist bars, gift shops, outdoor shops, and the like, but not much for residents) and sacrifice their family time for visitors (including maintaining a wide range of activities even on Christmas Day). Conversely, as all the businesses seem small and local, tourism must also bring a lot of wealth into the town.

Anyway, back to Wai-O-Tapu. we arrived in plenty of time to watch the 10.15am eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser - a slightly bizarre experience where a Park Ranger pours soap into a geyser, causing it to shoot spray and bubbles 10 metres in the air. I have to confess to being confused and pensive on the way there as I tried to understand how a natural phenomenon like this could be synchronised exactly with our 24hr day and even compensating for Summer Time adjustments (could it be the Earth's magnetic field, tidal forces.?), so it was partly relief and partly anticlimax when I found out it was the grand equivalent of a pack of mentoes and a bottle of coke - but was impressive nevertheless, and apparently it can reach up to 20m on occasion. After that dramatic show, we followed the trails around the park to look at mud pools, crazy coloured lakes filled with minerals and steaming craters.

We got back to our apartment for a quick lunch before donning our helmets and heading up to Whakarewarewa Forest for some Christmas Day mountain biking. Unfortunately we got completely lost trying to find the forest (more difficult than it sounds), so spent quite a bit of time cycling around an industrial estate and a residential area.but eventually we made it to the start of the biking trails. The forest was set up for all levels of mountain biking, with lots of different marked trails of different grades. We headed up the hill to one of the easier grade tracks called 'The Dipper', which was 4km back and forth twists and turns. The track had been well built up so you could really attack the bends, and by not using the breaks you could pick up some real speed. At the end of the loop, I split from Pamela and Jo to try some harder, more technical tracks, although I think the higher rating was more an indicator of the steepness of the hills rather than the technicality of the descents!

It was a quick turn around as soon as we got back to the apartments, and we headed straight out to the Polynesian Spa, where Katharine had booked us spa treatments for a Christmas present. This was my first experience of a spa, so rather than just getting a massage, I had to choose what my body had to be coated with first. I opted for a honey and lavender scrub, whereas Pamela was treated to exfoliating mud pack, and Jo was soothed with a coconut massage - and each was preceded by soaking for an hour in their 40o outdoor thermal baths with a view looking out over Lake Rotorua. Thank you Katharine!

Once relaxed and exfoliated, we set our minds to preparing our Christmas supper. The Bed & Breakfast had an impressive gas BBQ for our use, so we grilled a less-than-traditional but very tasty meal of steaks, sausages, kumara (like sweet potato), corn, asparagus and peppers. Our efforts were hampered somewhat by the rain that had started, but Pamela and Jo stoically continued, singing Christmas Carols to the other motel residents, and protecting the food from washing away - not to mention the wine and beer from being diluted - with umbrellas. Back in the warmth of our room, we ate like kings whilst watching another NZ film - Whale Rider this time.

All in all, a total contrast from our usual Christmas Day, but packed full of sight-seeing, adrenaline, massage oil and plenty of laughs - and of course a good 15oC warmer, I think I could get used to this!

Matt