‘I can see the sea!’ is a game we played as children, and Mike and I have continued whenever we are away from home. Without any discussion, we seem to have adapted it to inland adventures.
‘I can see the… lake!’ Mike won. An area of water stretched before us for a few minutes, then disappeared from sight.
We were on the bus to Rotorua, a town built on the flat plains of a once-inundated caldera. Volcanic activity gave the water a means of escape, leaving an area of gently sloping land around the remaining lake. The first water we saw was Lake Rotoiti. After it disappeared, it was not long before the larger Lake Rotorua appeared.
‘I can see the lake!’ Ha! One all.
For the next few days, we were staying with another member of the Rotary International Travel and Hosting Fellowship. We couldn’t wait to get properly clean after our time camping in the hills, but we must have smelt alright as Carol whisked us off in her car to show us around. After an initial orientation, we walked through a park, past pools of sulphurous water. Steaming, boiling pools of water and blurping mud. A viewpoint over the lake gave us a free sauna as the steam blew gently over us.
We were warned that Rotorua had an odious odour, but there was just a slight tinge of sulphur in the air. The next stop: somewhere to soak our feet in the warm, mineral-rich waters. Maybe we did smell, after all!
Rotorua was first chosen as a settlement by Māori migrants because the hot springs made the winters more bearable. Since colonial times, tourists have flocked to the town to admire the springs and geysers and cleanse themselves in the mud.
When we arrived at her house, Carol showed us to her patio to relax before dinner. Her garden is a cornucopia of healing and nourishing plants and a delight to spend time in. She likes to spread the joy of gardening, so she also has a strip of land in front of her house that she operates as a community garden. A sign explains that everyone is welcome to pick what they would like. The options include lettuce, beans, kale and flowers.
It was such a relief to be somewhere clean, with reliable running water and electricity, and other people around. However much I love spending time outdoors, I must be a townie at heart!
An early start
That night, we set our alarms to 6am. Yes, that’s 06:00. Six o’clock in the morning. Or sparrow fart, as our friend Paul calls it – far too early for two people who had not slept well for over a week!
We were impressed with the number of others who had done the same to attend the Rotorua Sunrise Rotary Club meeting. In an hour and a half, we ate a full cooked breakfast, listened to a brilliant speaker talking about her personal journey to photograph 100 women and 100 men in the town, and witnessed two new members being inducted into the club. We presented the President with a Llanelli Rotary Club banner, and then it was time for the meeting to end.
The room emptied quickly as some headed off to work, and the retired contingent went, with us, to a cafe for more chat.
Lurking giants
Mike had picked up a bug in the Lower Kaimai Hills, so the rest of our visit was an attempt to balance our interest in local sights with his need to sleep and recover. Luckily, Carol used to be a naturopath, so we had a professional healer to hand to boost his immune response.
Thanks to his love of trees and interest in sustainable development, Mike had a couple of meetings at Scion, the government’s forest research institute. Once he’d finished, we headed into their forest.
About 120 years ago, the research institute started planting trees from other parts of the world to see how well they would grow in New Zealand. A redwood forest is one of the results. The trees crowded in on each other, parallel verticals meeting in the sky way above our heads.
Below them, the tree ferns seemed to be thriving in the cool, damp conditions. The ground sprang underfoot, the sound of our steps deadened by layers of decaying vegetation slowly becoming soil. Birds ventured into the forest margins, but as we progressed deeper, all was quiet and still.
When we reached the visitor centre, there were thankfully few others around - we were enjoying the peace. A slice of a sequoia from the United States acts as a reminder of the age these giants can live for. Counting rings from the outside, curators have marked telling points in history - including the birth of Christ near the middle of the slice, the arrival of Māori in New Zealand and the European ‘discovery’ of the islands.
Tickets purchased, we worked our way up a boardwalk spiralling around one of the trees. A wobbly wooden bridge transported us over the car park to the first suspended platform. I sucked a deep breath into my lungs. Fresh air, oxygenated by trees and lightly adorned with the volatile organic compounds they release. Just what the doctor ordered!
Mike and I bounced across the bridges (do you find playing on suspension bridges irresistible, too?) and wobbled each platform (also suspended). We were overtaken by several other couples and small groups as we gazed down onto the tree ferns that, until now, we had only seen from underneath.
Mike was still feeling poorly, so we decided against a longer walk and headed home once we were out of the trees. There was more of Rotorua to see yet, so he would need his strength.
I remember the forests of Rotorua from a day mountain-biking around Whakarewarewa Forest. Very impressive.
You were definitely sweet smelling enough on arrival in Rotorua Julia 😂.
Great pic of the redwoods- so hard to get an idea of their immense height.
Carol