Gisborne calling: May 2012

Feeling like all I've done is sit around and walk on the beach on my days off, I decided to change it up last week. After working 3 nights in a row I took a morning bus bound for Rotorua (www.rotoruanz.com). Rotorua is northwest of Gisborne, more west than north---about halfway to Auckland. As long as waioeka gorge is open, you can get there by car in 4 hours. The gorge is part of the 'shortcut' way to get to Auckland and many other spots west of us. When it's closed down due to a 'slip' (read: massive rockslide that obliterates the road--the last one completely closed the gorge for I think 6 weeks and there's still a half-mile area in the middle which is one-lane so you have to stop at a makeshift traffic light and wait for the other direction), the only way to Auckland is up the coast and over---an incredibly scenic drive that adds around 4-5 hours to your trip. I'm starting to understand what folks mean when they say "wow, Gisborne, that's pretty far away, eh". When the gorge is closed, whatever was being driven to Gisborne doesn't arrive---food, supplies, stuff---yes, we've got what we need here but you begin to notice certain things aren't being replenished on the shelves, and if you ask where something is the response is "we should have some after the gorge opens up". There was a big slip a month or so after I started work and it seemed overkill the way everyone was ALWAYS talking about it, about how you can't go anywhere if it's closed and though that's not really true, it complicates travel plans. Flights are either super-expensive or super-cheap, and when the gorge closes the price of everything skyrockets.

Back to Rotorua. It's touristy for a good reason---they've got loads attractions and activities---but unlike Las Vegas, many of the attractions are nature-made, with geothermic parks, bubbling mud, rotten egg stinky sulphur pools, beautiful huge lakes, and a number of tectonic plate meetings. The steam rising out of rocks and pools and bubbling up from mud is strangely calming, as you realize if it weren't able to escape in this way it'd be building up inside and exploding off the top of some mountain, or ripping a hole in the earth.

Over 48 hours, I managed to:

Take in a Maori 'cultural' evening
See Kiwi birds (okay, in captivity, but still cool)
Soak in a stinky geothermic mineral bath at the hotel (you actually get used to the smell pretty fast, and the water is very soothing)
Tour around Wai-o-Tapu and Waimangu Parks
See the Lady Knox geyser erupt
Have a fabulous body scrub with manuka honey then full body massage at Rotorua Health and Spa (www.rotoruahealthandspa.co.nz) I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in the area---they are not one of the better known fancy places but they give great service
Eat the best indian food I've had in ages, with the worst table service I've had since coming to NZ
Take a stand up paddle board class upstream to a freshwater spring (and not fall off!)
Eat real sushi at a real sushi bar

Not bad for 2 days.