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Eggy Smells and Floating Poos
Taupo -> Roturoa, 21st-23rd December 2001
We got up quite late for a change because the bus wasn't coming
until midday. We were packed and ready with enough time to lie in
the beating sun for 20 minutes. Stinge & Em continued their
fascination and played another 'exciting' game of chess.
After a short drive, we entered Roturoa. The driver gave us a quick
tour of the town, making sure to point out the 4 main food groups:
the McDonalds group; the Burger King group; the Pizza Hut group; and
the Subway group. We had decided to stay at a YHA again as we were
so impressed with the last one. This one, the 'KiwiPaka' was a much
larger hostel. It had countless dorms, cabins, rooms and camp sites
sprawled over a large area. It wasn't quite as nice as the last one,
but it was still pretty good.
We got the tent up in no time. This time it was a little less saggy
(still a bit mouldy, but at least more firm), it still flopped a
bit, so it was obviously suffering. But what can we do? After
putting our stuff into the tent, we departed on the short walk into
town.
Sniff! Sniff! - As we got closer, the smell got worse. As the wind
blew across the town, the strong smell of Hydrogen Sulphide (a gas
with very ROTTEN EGGY aroma) assailed out nostrils. The whole town
is built around the attraction of the natural gases being emitted
from the various holes in the ground. For some reason, people PAY to
come and experience the egginess! This is the reason for the town's
nick name of 'Rotten-ruo'. Each to his own as they say! Trying our
best not to breathe deeply we walked around town, visited a Net Cafe
and did some shopping at good old Pak'n'Save.
The next day was lovely and sunny so we took the liberty of spending
most of the day sunbathing and relaxing. Luckily, the YHA was a
little out of town, so it didn't smell! We were careful not to spend
too long in the sun today though because Natalie's tomato impression
was already too scaringly good! We spent a bit more time window
shopping and wandering around the town. But, we didn't really do
much else in Roturoa. Most of the attractions were either expensive
or too far out of town.
We did find a great swimming pool complex. For only NZ$3 (1 pound)
we had unlimited use of 3 pools: a huge indoor pool, a fun kids
pool, and an Olympic-size outdoor pool. We played around in the
water for a few hours with the sun beating down, then decided to
head back for tea. Just as we got out, we noticed that all the kids,
who were there for a party, had swum to one end of the pool. They
were gathering around something...something
interesting...actually...something disgusting! A little kid has
taken it upon himself to do a poo in the pool. Hmmm! A life guard
had the fun job of using a long pole with a scoop on the end, to
"rescue" it put in the bin. Pleasant?
After our dose of exercise, we decided to head over to a brand new
Internet Cafe we'd stumbled across, which wasn't quite complete.
Wooden boards were everywhere and there was only a hand written sign
in the window. But they did have top of the range computers!
When we noticed that they were offering a special deal, 8pm to 6am
(the next day) for only $15, we decided to go for it. 10 hours for
only 5 pounds was too good an opportunity. We ended up staying on
until only about 4am, e-mailing people, playing Starcraft, chatting
in chat-rooms and other bits & pieces.
We then decided to call it a night, (well, actually it was now a
morning, Christmas Eve morning) and headed back. We snuck back
quietly into the campsite, meeting the early risers, and collapsed
into our sleeping bags.
In all the fun and excitement and with the (limited amount of)
strong sun, we'd completely forgotten that it was the 23rd of
December today. With the sights and smells of summer running through
us, it really didn't feel like tomorrow would be Christmas eve...
Next Diary Entry >>
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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