Due to all those thermal springs and steaming pools that spread the smell of sulfur arround Rotorua, this city is also called the City of Sulfur. Yes, the whole city – and the surrounding areas – smell(ehm, stink!) like sulfur. (I was immediately reminded of my Chemistry class in 9.grade..) It shouldn’t be too hard to find out if somebody comes from Rotorua just by sniffing at his clothes. (Our clothes smelled like sulfur until we washed them!)

Rotorua has the most energetic thermal activity in the country, with bubbling mud pools, gurgling hotsprings, gushing geysers and evil smells. To see all those thermal attractions we visited the Thermal Wonderland. Entrance fee was only 18NZ$.

At 10h15 the Lady Knox geyser in the Thermal Wonderland errupts daily. Actually this erruption is caused by a couple of kilos of soap powder. Yes, soap powder! The geyser is blocked up with some rags so the pressure builds up and everyday a guy from the Thermal Wonderland shoves some soap powder into the geyser to decrease the water surface viscosity – and then it goes off…