"Rotorua: between sulphur smell a ..." a Rotorua Travel Page by vtveen

Rotorua is one the most important tourist cities in New Zealand with a lot of interesting sights to visit.

In the high season it is a coming and going of (tour)busses and tourists/backpackers looking for accommodation in one of the many motels, hotels or hostels.
Tourism Rotorua, situated in a kind of Tudor styled building is a good place to get information about the sights in and around the town.

Nice, quiet and green are the Government Gardens, just outside the city centre, with lots of colourful flowers and the lovely old Bath House (now the Rotorua Museum of Art and History) and the Polynesian Spa with hot water pools.

Outside the town you will find a gondola to the top of Mt. Ngongotaha with views over Lake Rotorua and Agrodome with 'sheep activities'.

Rotorua is situated on the volcanic zone stretching from Mt. Ruapehu till some islands in the Pacific Ocean.

This location causes a lot of very interesting thermal activities. I just want to mention: Whakarewarewa, Wai-O-Tapu, Hell’s Gate, Mt. Tarawera and Orakei Korako. It is even possible to make a day trip to White Island, an active volcano about 50 km offshore from Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty. White Island Tours offers a shuttle service to/from Whakatane.

But for me it was even more fascinating seeing steam and gas coming to the surface just in a shopping street, a public park or a residential area.

And it is for sure you will smell sulphur everywhere in Rotorua; after all the town is famous for its 'rotten eggs perfume'. So it's nickname is 'sulphur city' !!!

Having a large Maori population, Rotorua is a Maori stronghold in New Zealand.

First of all there is Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, a Maori village built up and around a thermal area with a nice Marae (meeting house) and a cemetery with graves above the earth, because of the heath and steam in the earth. Here you will find also some shops of Maori artisans and a couple of times a day there are performances of Maori dancers and singers.
Close to this village is the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute
The whole scene is 'a little bit' touristy, but for a first impression it is OK.

Much more original is Ohinemutu, situated more or less at the end of the main shopping street on the borders of Lake Rotorua. A perfectly normal Maori village with (off course) a Marae and the wooden St. Faith's Anglican Church, built in 1910, with many woodcarvings and weaved panels inside.
Several little streams of hot steaming water are streaming through the village. If you are lucky you can see Maori women cooking meals in one the pools.

Hotels in Rotorua organise every night concerts and/or so called 'hangi's' (meals cooked in earth ovens).