Rotorua
is a place, where is a lot to do. We started a bit further away the city center, at Wai-O-Tapu, where is a lot of geysers.
The biggest one is called Lady Know and splash every day at 10:15. It is easy to spot why at this time, because it is a huge attraction, when some guy tells you a bit about history (prisoners washed their clothes inside and found that it can splash when they put soap inside) and then he starts the action with the soap. And in a few minutes it starts splashing, up to 20 meters high. Well, it looks more like some hose is put inside and someone pump the water, it is just small, without energy.
Some of the geysers inside are really nice, colorful, we liked especially the Champagne Pool and Devil’s bath, both of them had nice colors. At this time we also realized, how important is the Sun, without it the colors just weren’t that bright.
It was nice walk over there, different colors, amazement on what nature is able to create. But there weren’t any action, we somehow expected something more active, like SOOS in Czech Republic. On leaving Wai-O-Tapu we spot the Mud pool, and they were awesome, full of boiling mud which splash everywhere.
Kiwi Encounter was next attraction. We got inside as a press and even got our own guide. There is a lot of interesting information about kiwis, we didn’t know they can live up to 50 years, weight about 3kg, their eggs weight around 25% of mother and they are able to lay them every two weeks. Father has the responsibility for nest and after hatching he leave them on their own. Which means that in nature they have about 5% chance of surviving. They also have strong smell and sense of hearing, but almost not able to see. Last information – they are nocturnal animals, so we were able to spot them just in special nocturnal house. If you plan to go there, I would prefer the Kiwi Encounter tour more than Rainbow Spring, which is more like park with animals around. By the way – the birds kea are pretty clever, they even got a cage with special opening, where you need to push something quite far away from doors, otherwise they would be able to open themselves.
We just missed the Caterpillar Experience with a lot of old machinery and were just able to admire those two outside the building.
Transfer to Whakatane, where we had a BBQ on the beach on our small grill.