Rotorua is in a very active geothermal area and staying a little bit away from the town itself was a wise choice as the sulphurous smell can be pretty strong and unpleasant at times. We did, however, want to go and take a look for ourselves at some of the geothermal activity in the area so we took ourselves down to the Te Puia reserve on the outskirts of Rotorua. This serves as both a museum of Maori culture and parkland in which you can explore various geological sights.
The highlight was definitely the geyser which blows water up to 30m in the air about twice an hour on average. When we arrived it wasn’t erupting, so we stood and waited. It didn’t take long before a smaller geyser began erupting and this is a indicator that the main event is coming. We waited still, watching as the smaller geyser blew water around 7m into the air (impressive enough!). This went on for much longer than either of us had imagined it would. (For some reason I had thought that it would only ‘blow’ for a second or so). Then the main geyser began to erupt, slowly at first, then building to a rushing torrent of water and steam which certainly reached a long way into the air (perhaps 20m?). The steam makes it hard to photograph clearly, but we took plenty of photos regardless.
The rest of the park was pleasant too, and we saw hot bubbling mud pools, steam vents, felt hot rocks on the ground, and enjoyed a walk around a lake which a sign informed us had the acidity of a car battery (I didn’t feel the urge to test this).
The next day, due to my obsession with all things whitewater, I had persuaded the others that we should go whitewater rafting. Close to Rotorua at Okere Falls, there is a whitewater rafting company run by Sam Sutton, a big name in the kayaking world due to his repeated success at the Sickline down-river race held in Austria each year. So, we signed up for a trip with them and arrived bright and early for the 9am session. One of our kayak coaches in Nepal had mentioned that his friend Andraz worked at the rafting company so while we were getting our kit sorted I asked if Andraz was around. “That’s me” one of the guides said, and I introduced myself and explained that we were kayakers and our mutual acquaintance. When we got around to getting into a raft, Andraz said “I want those guys” so the 4 of us jumped into his raft with 2 other tourists and set off down the river.
There’s some similarity between whitewater rafting and kayaking, and we were able to spot good lines (routes) down rapids, put some good powerful forward paddle strokes in to help Andraz steer us in the right direction, and when it came to practicing jumping out and climbing back into the raft, we were definitely able to achieve that with slightly more finesse than some of the non-kayaking tourists.
The main event on the river we were rafting (the Kaituna) is Tutea falls, a 7m drop and the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. The raft guides all pulled their rafts up in an eddy upstream of the falls, in order to deliver a safety briefing and to give people the option of walking round it. Sam Sutton himself delivered this briefing, and I have to admit to feeling a little bit star struck! Here was a face I’d seen on TV (or at least the online video stream of the sickline competition). I didn’t mention this to Mel or the others as I think they might think I was a bit sad! (After all, Sam is only known within the kayaking world, my sister would have no clue who I was talking about).
Peeling out from the eddy above the drop, at Andraz’s instruction we paddled hard forward and then hunkered down in the raft. We shot off the top of the falls and plummeted the 7m below into a surprisingly soft landing. The large pile of foamy, aerated water at the bottom of the falls forms a nice cushion for rafters and kayakers alike to land on, and we emerged soaked but grinning into the pool at the bottom.
A few more rapids later and we were back on dry land, a short shuttle back to the rafting company HQ and a quick review of the photos (we chose not to purchase them so you’ll have to put up with my poor shots of the later group) and we hit the road again en-route to Taupo (for lunch) and onwards to the Tongariro national park. It was Christmas Eve and our plan was to walk the Tongariro crossing as Christmas Day treat!
Melanie and Colin Go Travelling 