The Road to Rotorua

Pronounced just as it looks Rotorua-- wrote - o- roo-a.

Wednesday 12 July we departed Auckland for some place down south . . . we’d see how far we’d get. The morning started out a little more eventful than we’d hoped, however. Our car inspection was set for half-past 9 (yes, we have to start speaking more Kiwi and this is how they tell time) and we didn’t know what to expect. Well, after an hour’s check, the car wouldn’t start up, even with jumper cables attached to it! We had to check out in an hours time and we were running through our options. And, of course, what else might be wrong with it?? The mechanic was not talkative, giving us no hint of what could be going on. Finally, he got the car started again and took Don for a 20 minute joy ride around Auckland testing out the car. But, he determined the battery was dead—not a great surprise since the car hasn’t been started since it lived in Japan. We left the car running as we ran up and down to the apartment gathering our luggage. All our bags must weigh somewhere near 400 pounds we think, and the poor car (nicknamed Tillie cuz she’s so cute!) was dragging heavily on the rear end. So we headed back to the “dealer”—I say this lightly because they are so f***ing stereotypical use car salesmen, we found out from the mechanic that they didn’t replace our front shocks, only the rear shocks. Well, that explains why the front still makes a noise!! Jackasses.

So we headed off to the dealer, they sent us to the battery folks and we had them replace something else minor without asking the dealer—they owed us at least this. But it turns out the battery was completely dead, our new one works like a charm and the car has few other issues, thank goodness!!

We headed south into Hamilton, not to eventful. As we were entering Hamilton we noticed heavy, dark clouds over the city and as we drove into the town, the roads were flooded and you could see little beads of hail all over the roads and sidewalks. Some roads were flooded, and many sidewalks were flooded. Apparently, we learned later that night, the area received one of its largest hail storms in history. And we just missed it! Darn. Would’ve liked to have gotten some dents in the new car. Actually, the hail was nothing like Colorado hail, only about pea size, but it was everywhere. We tried to take a picture but it was too dark and hard to see out of the car. But we survived a historical moment.

South of Hamilton is the town where the Maori (pronounced Mauwri) queen lives, she is actually very ill right night and in hospital suffering from an alleged heard attack—no one knows because her spokespeople don’t seem to want to discuss what is making her ill. But it seems she is deteriorating healthwise, this is now a big story. She is in a hospital in this region.

We kept driving past Hamilton and headed toward Rotorua, the most vacationed spot for New Zealanders on the North Island. That is because it is famous for its hot springs and thermal spas. I thought, when planning out these 5 days heading south, that it would be inexpensive, middle of winter, lacking travelers, etc. NOT SO! As is usual for Don and I, we’ve arrived right in the middle of winter break for Kiwis, the kids have been out of school last week and this week, they go back 17 July. As such, and because it is winter, bazillions of Kiwis vacation in Rotorua for the hot springs and all the prices for everything are jacked up really high. Grrreat. The place is packed full, with many hotels having no vacancy.

In fact, the entire city appears (I’m not sure of what is fact) to be built on top of thermal hot springs—and it REEKS of sulfer nearly everywhere. The sulfer was so strong in the city center, not only were my nostrils aching from the stench, but my eyes were burning and I thought I wouldn’t be able to stay in the city overnight! We belong to a NZ expatriats listserv and I’ve seen several messages from new residents and old that “oh, you get used to the smell after time.” I find that hard to believe, it is very, very strong! You can see the smoke rising from the earth all around the city.

Most of the hotels offer private spa pools, a Jacuzzi-type set up that you fill up with a faucet that links to the thermal spa water. The hotel we are at claims the tap water, however, is filtered—it promises it is because apparently people are worried they will drink the sulfer water! There is a common pool at our place where the temperature of the pool water is 36 degrees centigrade, or 100 degrees Celsius. Too hot for my blood.

So tomorrow we’ll check out Zorbing if the weather permits and we’ll head further south, who knows where we’ll stop!