Rotorua Day One - Luxury Spa

The morning before our drive from the Coromandel to Rotorua, we decided to go for a long run along the Karangahake Gorge – where we had parked up for the night. The Lonely Planet recommends a 9km walk along the gorge, that supposedly takes 3 hours. As we wanted to get to Rotorua early that day, we thought we'd run the thing and get it over with more quickly. So, dismissing signs that said “Gorge Walk: 2.5 hours one way” we set off in the scorching sun (it was particularly hot that day). The route had some really nice scenery, and it was definitely a worthwhile run, but it seemed to be taking a lot longer than expected ... is this route really just 9k?

Two hours later, very hot, very tired and very dehydrated, we staggered back to our van. After I'd jumped into the river and drunk over 2 litres of water, I consulted the map. It seems we had run around 16km over undulating countryside. Thanks Lonely Planet ...

After sufficient recuperation, we got into our trusty van again and headed off to Rotorua. The first thing that struck us when we got there was the overpowering smell. “Chris, have you been eating curried eggs again?” But no, for once it wasn't me. Rotorua is a very active thermal area, where magma from the earth's mantle lies unusually near the surface. This causes pockets of groundwater just below the surface to superheat, causing all sorts of phenomena – such us bubbling pools of mud, hot unusually coloured lakes, geysers, fumeroles (steam rising from the ground) and loads of other strange stuff. The main effect however (due to the high sulphur content in the rising steam) is that the whole place reeks of bad eggs. You get used to it after a couple of days ...

After we'd driven around a bit, and found a car park that we could call home for a night, we thought we'd check out this thermal malarkey first hand. Since our morning run, our muscles were crying out for a long soak in a warm bath. Behold Polynesian Spa, the first bit of real luxury we'd allowed ourselves since spending our first night in the van a week previously. The Spa was great – situated on the site of a thermal spring, it boasted multi-layered hot mineral pools of varying temperatures, all open air, with great views across lake Rotorua. We stayed for a couple of hours, relaxing in the various pools, then seeing how long we could hack lying in the 42 degree “cooking” pool. It was really, really hot ...

After that, we retired back to our luxury car park. I say luxury car park, as it afforded some great views over lake Rotorua, and the black swans that live on it. Yes – black swans. They're just like normal swans except for a different colour.

Our sleeping spot would have been perfect, except that it smelt to high heaven, and perhaps because of this, had an abundance of flying insects. This didn't bother us too much, since after our hot soak in mineral rich water, the only thing we wanted to do was pass out. So, we settled into bed and got some well deserved sleep ... only interrupted by a 1am eating binge where we demolished an entire pack of cereal plus some marmite sandwiches. Where did that come from? Apparently hot water makes you hungry ...