Around the World in 8000 days: Rotorua - Whakarewarewa and Hell's Gate

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Rotorua - Whakarewarewa and Hell's Gate

Whakarewarewa

Our first geothermals visit was to Whakarewarewa, known as the living Maori village. What makes this place interesting is that you can see how the Tuhourangi / Ngata Wahiao people used the geothermals in their everyday life.

Bathing pools, Whakarewarewa

As well as the obvious use for bathing and washing clothes (they had a separate dedicated pool for washing the nappies), they used pools to cook, both directly in the water, such as potatoes, and using the heat generated to create an oven.

We tried their speciality of hangie pie, which is a meat and vegetable pie, where the filling was all cooked in the thermals, and it tasted pretty good.

Whakarewarewa

We walked around the place ourselves, but you can do a free guided tour if you have the time, and they do give you more information than there is in the guide leaflet. We did drop in to catch part of the entertainment though, where we were treated to some traditional songs, dances and of course, a rendition of the Haka.

In the main, the thermals here aren't that interesting, it is more about the overall experience. The biggest draw would be the ability to see Pohutu Geyser in the neighbouring Te Puia site.

Pohutu Geyser, from Whakarewarewa

This is apparently the largest geyser in the southern hemisphere, with water and steam venting 30 metres into the air. It did look pretty impressive, even from here.

We did like the mud pool though. It may be small, but it has just the right amount of activity to create those great patterns of concentric circles.

Whakarewarewa

Haka, Whakarewarewa

Whakarewarewa

Our second visit was to Hell's Gate. Many people come here for a mud bath, but as we had seen how hard our fellow hostellers found it to get the stuff out of their swimming gear, we gave it a miss.

Hell's Gate

George Bernard Shaw visited the thermals here and thought he had arrived at the gates of hell, which is how the place got its name. Between the hot steam rising out of them, and that rotten egg smell, you can certainly be forgiven for thinking that some kind of demonic force might be lurking in amongst the depths of these sulphurous chasms.

Mud volcano, Hell's Gate

These weren't the most impressive thermals we saw, and they aren't the most photogenic, but it is certainly worth walking the whole way around to see the variety of different things, from 100 degrees centigrade pools, through the largest mud volcano in New Zealand, to the largest hot waterfalls in the southern hemisphere.

O Te Mimi O Te Kakahi, Hell's Gate

The latter are called O Te Mimi O Te Kakahi, which translates as the Urine of Kakahi. Kakahi was an important Maori warrior, and the falls were where other Maori warriors came to bathe after battle, with the sulphorous waters helping to heal their wounds.