Rotorua

The thing about Rotorua is the smell.

It's generally a gorgeous little town, full of gardens and lamp-posts, cobbled sidewalks and cafe-bars. Our room comes with an en suite bathroom and shower, with a heated towel rack and an elegant design. There are candies on the pillows, free towels, extra bedding and a space heater. The fridge is full of beer ($2.00 each) and eggs ($0.40 each). It seems they've thought of everything.

But Rotorua is built along one of the most active geothermic fault lines in the world, and with that heat comes sulfur.

The people of Roturua don't seem to notice the strong boiled-eggs smell, so we imagine that we'll get used to it, too. We pack our bathing suits and visit the Polynesian Spa, where there are naturally heated pools surrounded by tropical gardens and steaming waterfalls. If you want, you can also pay for mud baths, massages, wraps-- the works. As we get closer, we can see the steam rising and we can smell the sulfur getting stronger.

The spa is full of Australian and Indian tourists who talk gaily and try to engage us in conversation also. We soak for hours, until we can't stand it. Afterward, I  have that rubbery, drained, completely content feeling you get when you've been in a hot tub for too long. I order carrot-orange-cranberry juice and John gets ice cream. We stroll through the town, which smells better to us now.

That night, we visit a Maori village, where we pay for a tour, show, and traditional feast. We watch the Maori warriors dance the Haka, and the girls dance and play games. The chief explains their rituals and history. We meet a French couple from New Caledonia, and together we eat and drink wine before venturing into the bush to see glow worms at the Sacred Spring.

Possibly the best day ever.

On our final day in Rotorua, we hire a car and drive to Wai-O-Tapu geothermal park. (It turns out that we haven't got used to the sulfur smell, after all; or otherwise it is just incredibly strong here.) The park is amazing and should win a place on the top-ten must-do activities in the country. Pools of boiling mud erupt and steam; there are bright green and bright orange pools of steaming water. Everywhere the forest is steaming, the earth belching sulfur from frowning yellow mouths. Orange moss drips from the trees.