Rotorua, “Sulphur City”

It is a magical volcanic area, its natural springs burst forth with miraculous water. And it smells like rotten eggs, the whole town.

Rotorua was the first lake town that we visited. Here is Lake Rotorua:

There’s Vince enjoying the view with a black swan and her swan-lings (word?).

This is the Rotorua Museum – we didn’t go in, but it sure is pretty.

As we tend to do, we took a nice long walk around the Blue Lake:

On the same walk, we took a path across to the Green Lake. It is gorgeous. It is sacred Maori space, so no recreational activities are allowed on it.

We stopped and visited a California redwood forest on the way back… Just like home!

The next morning, we went to Tarawera Forest and Tarawera Falls. We had to stop in a tiny town to buy a permit to go there. On the way to the forest, there were more gorgeous lakes:

… And more gravel roads:

Here’s Lake Tarawera:

The hike to the falls was gorgeous (sorry to keep repeating "gorgeous" – I didn’t pack my thesaurus.) But as you can see, I was excited about all the gorgeousness.

There was a river flowing next to the path:

There are some smaller waterfalls on the way to the big waterfalls:

And some more waterfalls, still on the way. And a tree growing over a rock in the middle of the water – in the foreground, on the left:

And finally, the main falls – Tarawera Falls. We’re pretty far away, but what makes these falls unique is that the river disappears underground for a while, before emerging from the middle of this rock wall.

That evening, we relaxed our sore muscles in the natural thermal mineral waters of the Polynesian Spa, with 7 outdoor pools overlooking the lake. Hiking and hot pools... I could get used to this daily routine.