The Thermal Park outside of Rotorua is a truly gassy place

Yes, Dear Reader,

we have been traveling by car… A small car…  With two male children the interior can get…. Well… Kinda smelly.  So you can understand our quandary after driving into Rotorua- who dealt it? The malodorous children or township?  Score 1 for the town, a rare but quite clear fact upon opening the door at the fabulous Regent of Rotorua.

Why Rotorua?  Why if it smells like a whole lot of rotten eggs (the locals say you get used to it, but 24 hours the olfactory trauma continued to linger) do you want to go?  Well, dear reader, we only scratched the surface of this pungent area but were ready to stay another day.   If you are going to stay in Rotorua, the only place to stay is at the The Regent of Rotorua (think the W hotel of the North Island- read soon to be published review) from the Regent you can hit the Maori Village (we missed it), Agroventures (alpine slides, ogo rolling– we missed this as well), and Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Park (we made this).  We watched a the Lady Knox Geyser blow as well as taking a three hour hike through the geothermal park.

The Lady Knox Geyser

Bubbling mud- not spa worthy at over 100 degrees celsius

Gassy tourists at Wai-O-Tapu

Beautiful yellow pools- thank you sulfur!