VictoriaMay 7
We did not sleep well. Apart from the uncleanliness, I couldn’t put my finger on what was bugging me about the house. It was just a feeling.
We called Airbnb and told them we wanted to check out. They contacted the owner who said they would send the cleaners back over. We thought it only fair and gave them a chance.
We went to Te Puia, a geothermal park. Paul was our excellent guide who enlightened us on Māori culture, geysers and mud pools.
Rotorua sits within the Ring of Fire, a tectonic belt that encircles most of the Pacific Ocean where a majority of Earth’s volcanoes and earthquakes are located.
It’s the most seismically and volcanically active area in the world, with about 90% of earthquakes and 75% of active volcanoes occurring along it. The Ring of Fire is about 24,000 miles long and 300 miles wide and contains between 750 and 915 active or dormant volcanoes.
While Paul was explaining all the details of the geyser and park, we were standing on a spot with extreme heat under us. Even the concrete sitting area was too hot to sit on. Beneath us was rising steam and boiling mud from geothermal pressure. Rotorua’s hyper geothermic activity helps release pressure from building up from under the earth’s crust. These release valves are located all around this town and region and as a result you can see steam coming out of the ground, mud bubbling and geysers erupting. We had parked our car across from a golf course where steam was coming out from the ground near the green. We were curious about it and just found out why.
Our first stop on the Te Puia tour was to see the largest naturally active geyser on the Southern Hemisphere, Pohutu Geyser.
Pohutu, meaning “constant splashing,” erupts up to 20 times a day at the height of 100 feet. It was extra stinky standing near it, but incredible to witness its powerful eruption. There also appeared to be more steam today because it was a colder day.
Our next stop was the mud pools, burbling away at a scorching 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Its activity depends on the rains received in the region.
Next we headed to the Kiwi House, home of the brown kiwi.
We lined up inside the darkened enclosure and patiently waited to see a kiwi behind the glass. Again, strict instructions were given: no phones, no cameras, be quiet. After about ten minutes of intense scanning of the enclosure, we spotted one just as we were about to exit. I’m always amazed at the largeness of an adult kiwi. So now we’ve seen kiwi in the wild and in captivity. Cool!
We went back to the haunted house and while the cleaners made an attempt at rectifying some of our issues, many were unchanged. So we decided to pack up our stuff and find another place to stay. By this point it was 3:30 pm.
We looked at our wish list for this town from seven months ago and some of the places were still available. This isn’t high season, so we were in luck. We did a new search and found at the top of the list a new place with all 5-star reviews. Boom! Booked! We had a new home for the next three nights. Sure beats living in the car. Airbnb did their magic and refunded us for the old place. We could now get back to enjoying NZ and all this town had to offer.
With crossed fingers and toes, we arrived at the new Airbnb. It was spotlessly clean with great views.
Whew! Even though it was a few hours out of our day to check out of the original place and find a new one, we were really glad we made the switch.
We went for a great dinner at Poco Tapas (thanks Sabatiers!) and then decided quite last minute to do the night walk of the Redwoods Treewalk.
Lit up by 34 lanterns, we crossed 28 swing bridges that were 65 feet high as we walked through the 115 year old redwood forest.
We walked for 40 minutes along the suspended bridges and enjoyed all of the artistic lights and designs that lit the way. It was a unique experience. The sky was clear and we also enjoyed some stargazing as well.
We bought a combo ticket that would allow us to return tomorrow to see the trees in daylight.
We got back to our clean and spooky free house, relieved to be in a much better place. What could have been the most terrible day turned out a-okay! 👍
