Day 149 - Rotorua

Left Whitianga at around 7:45am bound for Rotarua. On the way, we stopped off at Karangahake Gorge Historic walk which was an abandoned mining site with suspension bridges and mining tunnels. It was very cool. Pitch black and beautiful. They used to mine gold here back in the day but have since left all the structures.

Matamata was next. It's the little town where they filmed The Lord of the Rings, their claim to fame. Apparently the director, Peter Jackson, decided to take a helicopter around New Zealand to find the perfect spot to film the movie. He flew around and found a single oak tree that he loved on a farmers property and decided to build Hobbiton on it. When filming was over they tore down the set but realized they hadn't filmed specific parts and needed to rebuild the village. The owner of the farm only signed the contract for rebuilding and filming if they were to leave the set. So, a new tourist trap was formed.
Upon arrival in Rotorua, the first thing that hit me was the smell. This entire place smells like sulphur. The air reeks here. I went to Te Puia which is where all the thermal pools, mud pools and geysers are located. This place was swamped with Asian and American tourists. I made sure that I stayed ahead of the crowd so I didn't get sucked into it. The landscape here is stunning and its so amazing that nature creates such things.

For dinner I went to Tamaki Maori Village for a traditional Hangi, which is a meal which is cooked in an underground over and layered so that all the flavour would infuse all the food. This place was a major tourist trap. It was so incredibly crowded. There were about 250 people here and for some of the traditional performances, my view was obstructed by some woman's insanely large head. On the whole a good experience but it definitely tried my patience.

The best part of the night was the bus ride home. Our bus driver made us sing all the way back to the hostel. When we got into a rendition of "The wheels on the bus", she took circled around a roundabout about 10 times. It was classic.