Day 27 – 29 : Rotorua: “I think someone is being murdered outside.”
Rotorua is a squat, nondescript town about a couple of hours south-east of Auckland. We take the Naked Bus (no nakedness detected) and are soon spat out in the rain at an i-Site office, i-Site being the ubiquitous tourist centres found all over New Zealand.
Our first reaction to the town (apart from where did all this rain come from) is the fetid eggy smell emanating from its streets. We quickly learn that it’s the local sulphur tracts that give the town its unique and famous stench. I’m instantly reminded of the sulphur trail we walked in Hawaii and the similar god-awful reek similar in odour to rotten eggs. Of course, no Hawaiian would be stupid enough to pitch a tent right next to such a malodorous phenomenon or even live downwind of what is truly a powerful stench.
Welcome to Rotorua – where sense is not necessarily something available in droves.