Day 6: Rotorua - Copper load of those sulphates

This morning we headed to the Polynesian Spa. Took a bit of finding, but we knew when we were almost there. As we crossed the street, the wind must have changed and it was like walking into a wall of sulphur. Memories of the science corridor at school when doing the sulphur experiments sprang to mind.


We were met in reception by a woman wearing a mobile phone headset, straight from central-casting for a beauty therapist receptionist. She was very nice but didn't really get "humour'.

We chose our treatments then headed out to the pools for what turned out to be a 10 minute soak - just about time for a hard boiled egg. The hottest pool was about 42deg C which was like a really nice bath, only outside, looking at a lake. Very relaxing, though the water leaves a very slippy soapy feeling on your skin.

Then went for a really nice massage, with quite a lot of painful work on my neck and shoulders but really, really good.

In the evening we went against all better judgment and booked into to the tourist-tastic sensation of a Hangi - which is where innocent foreigners are driven to a tradtional Maori village (conviently just off the bypass). They are then greeted by traditional Maori warriors on their Waka (canoe), there's a bit of back and forth, some dancing and shouting and then we had the meal. This was all sorts of things that had been cooked in a traditional earth oven - chicken, lamb, sweet potatoes and oddly a chocolate roulade and a trifle. Not sure the last bits were done in the oven.
The meal had been helped along by the judicious application of lighter fluid, which did lots for the traditional taste.

It was quite good fun really, but very out of my comfort zone of things I would normally do.

It was nice to meet lots of different people there, and to have a couple of national sterotypes re-inforced (basically Australian: slightly less racist than Hitler).


So far though, Rotorua has been very good to us, and there is even better to come tomorrow.