This past weekend I went to Rotorua with some fellow TEAN’ers!
Edited note: The entirety of Rotorua smells of Sulfuric Acid. Essentially it smells like one old big fart- but once you get used to the smell the place is pretty spectacular!
Friday –
My fellow TEAN-Palmy friend, Ashley, and I decided to get the most out of our time there so we left on the 10:05 pm bus from Palmerston North which was scheduled to get into Rotorua at 3:40am on Friday… We didn’t have any set plans once we got dropped off because nothing was open for at least another 4 hours and we couldn’t check in to the hostel until 11am. So smart of a plan, right? But hey, we managed to explore the city in the very early morning!
We ended up checking out our surrounding area by walking around the city and to the lake (which was a five minute walk from the center of the city). Fun fact: Lake Rotorua is the second largest lake on New Zealand’s North Island. It was still too dark to see anything but it was nice to sit on the park bench and listen to the water while waiting for the sun to rise.
Around 6:30 am we made our way back towards the the city center and found a McDonalds. [Thank god Micky D’s opens so early]. There we got something to eat and relaxed while waiting for some shops to open and for the sun to rise. Once the sun came up, we walked to a nearby public park.
Kuirau Park is essentially one big steaming, hissing, bubbling- geothermal area casually located right down town. The whole place smells of sulfuric acid! The public geothermal park was quite an interesting surprise to find in Rotorua. The park is easy to walk through, provided that you stay on the safe side of the safety fences and on the proper foot paths. Check it out below!
After the park Ashley and I went around to a few of the local shops and ended up meeting another TEAN’er, Alyssa, (from Christchurch) and her friend Toryn. After getting caught up it was finally 11am and we were now able to check in to our hostel: Cranks Backpackers.
After getting settled in the hostel and dropping off our bags, we headed out to our planned activities. The first stop on Friday, Hells Gate!
Hells Gate is one of the most active geothermal parks in all of New Zealand; it has boiling hot pools, steaming fumaroles, sulphur crystals, New Zealand’s largest active mud volcano, and the Southern Hemispheres’s largest hot water fall. All of it was impressive to see! 
Sadly, the water fall wasn’t flowing like it normally does because New Zealand is currently in a drought, but it was still cool. [I hope the drought doesn’t last much longer!!]
The best part: our hostel offered a deal in which we were able to pay $15 NZD more for a chance to relax in and experience a mud bath and sulphur spa. Well worth the few extra dollars! The trip was very educational as we learned all about the geothermal history of Hells Gate. After the hike through the park it was nice to relax and enjoy the soothing qualities of the luxurious mud bath and spa.
Saturday –
On Saturday we woke up early so we could catch our bus to travel to Matamata and visit the The Hobbiton Movie Set Tour. For those of you that are unaware, The Hobbiton Movie Set Tour is a tour of the magnificent ‘Shire’ in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. For me, it was like Christmas morning!
On the way to the tour we picked up a few more people, and two of them were dressed up, one as an elf and the other as a hobbit! Next time I go, I have to dress up!
The tour was AMAZING!! We were able to see several of the locations in which the movie was shot: like where Frodo jumps onto the cart with Gandolf as he enters the Shire on his wagon full of fireworks, the home of Samwise Gamgee, and of course the ever-popular Bag End (the hobbit home of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins).
I was also able to step inside one of the hobbit home sets to get a picture! As we made our way through all of the hobbit holes, we ended in an open field near a lake and tree better known as the Party Field and Party Tree, where the Bilbo’s Birthday party scene was filmed. The tour finished inside The Shires local hangout, The Green Dragon Inn, where I was able to try one of the local ales made only for Hobbiton!
The history of on how the Hobbiton Movie Set was quite interesting to learn. The filming location was discovered in September 1998 during an aerial search for suitable film sites all through the country.
The two identifying features of the location that really struck Peter Jackson (director) and New Line Cinema’s interest were the a large pine tree, the’Party Tree’, and the rolling hills of the land. The land was originally (and continues to be to this day) owned by family of Ian Alexander. After the Alexander family agreed to sign over their land for filming the New Zealand Army was contracted to build roads into the set and begin the initial development of the set, which included the development of a base camp for filming crew and actors. Gradually, trees and hedges were brought in along with the construction of a mill and double arch bridge, and the creation of 37 hobbit holes. Filming for the trilogy commenced in December 1999.
[Yep, LOTR is that important the the NZ Army got involved :)]
Once the Hobbiton Tour was finished my friends and I made our way back to Rotorua to catch another bus that would take us to a the nearby town of Ngongotaha (aka the home of ZORB!).
ZORB is the New Zealand company that invented the ZORB globe and has developed the sport of globe riding, aka zorbing. Zorbing can be described as climbing into a human sized hamster ball and rolling down a hill. I signed up to go twice! Both times in a a zorb with water, which is nicknamed Zydro. Zorbing was so much fun!! Although slightly more expensive than I would have though but definitely something that I recommend! It was a check off of my NZ bucket list for sure!
While at Zorb, we learned a little background on how it came it be. I never looked into how it was established, and if you haven’t either you might be shocked by the simplicity of it! The idea was created by two brothers who wanted to walk on water. Zorb originally started as a spherical device with a hole in the middle for people to get into (like a giant doughnut) and it gradually got snapped into an orb. The brothers decided to call it Orb, but due to regulations of not being able to name things after shapes the brothers came up with Zorb, and did this by simply adding a “z” to the word “bro” and then flipping it. So Zorb =Broz (for the brothers), pretty interesting right?!
Sunday-
Sunday was check out day from the hostel.
We checked out by 10am and waited around in the city until our bus left at 1pm. During our waiting time we walked a few blocks from our bus atop to The Government Gardens.
The Government Gardens is a local public park which is houses The Rotorua Museum of Art and History. I learned that the museum was actually at one point a bath spa wounded soldiers came to to heal after their injuries in war. Although it was a cloudy day, the lawn and walkway leading up to the museum was gorgeous.
I have to admit, at first we were a little skeptical about going to Rotorua because we heard that there was nothing to do — clearly that is not the case!! If I had more time and money I could have easily stayed there for a few more days. All well though. I was able to check several things off my NZ bucket list and make some incredible memories. If I have time, I’d like to go back. But for now, it’s back to my studies on to plan the next adventure!
-Brad
Emerson Was Right 