Rotorua

I wasn't planning to visit Rotorua since I went with Trina two years ago, but it was the easiest way to access Hobbiton by bus from National Park. I am really glad that I ended up coming back.

 

As seems to be the usual story, I made a friend at the hostel. One of the girls in my room, Yukari, was also booked for the Hobbiton tour Tuesday morning, and we ended up getting along really well. Neither one of us are huge Lord of the Rings fans, but we enjoyed the cute buildings, and the free drink in the pub at the end wasn't bad. haha.


One of Rotorua's distinct characteristics is the smell. It has an amazing amount of geothermal springs and sulfur gasses escaping from all over town, causing it to smell of sulfur. A lot of people don't like it, but it reminds me of Kusatsu so I didn't mind. Rotorua has a really cool park where you can wander around and see a number of the spring. They also have a footbath like the "ashiyu" in Kusatsu and other onsen towns in Japan. 

Hot bubbling mud pool at the park

Free foot spa at the park

After a good soak in the spa

Also like Kusatsu they have a number of hot spring spas. After doing a little research I found that oddly most of the spas don't actually use the natural hot water. They use the heat to warm tap water... I guess that avoids the smell, but it also defeats the point in my opinion. The Polynesian Spa in town uses the natural sulfuric spring water, so in the evening Yukari and I went down to check it out. It was weird to wear swimsuits, since I am so used to Japanese onsen, but the water still felt amazing. It also made me very sleepy! I was glad to get to bed!


Wednesday Yukari and I took a wander around town and found a café, called Abracadabra. The coffee and brunch was really good and the Mexican-ish theme was pretty funny. (I still don't totally understand why a café called Abracadabra is decorated with sombreros and day of the dead skulls... but whatever)

Our last team adventure in Rotarua was the Redwood Forest. I didn't really have any expectations other than a nice walk but the forest was AMAZING! The redwoods were fantastic, and the forest was very relaxing to wander through. If it hadn't been for the ferns I would have thought I was back in California!

After returning to town Yukari and I said goodbye, and headed on our next adventures. For me, Waitomo!