WHAKAREWAREWA: THE LIVING MAORI VILLAGE

Nope, not a typo.

I could smell this place as soon as I opened the car door. And I don't mean it smelt nice. It smelt bad. Rotorua is famous for it's sulfur smell and they weren't kidding. The smell was almost unidentifiable in town but out here, at the geysers and mud pools, the smell was almost overpowering. It was an amazing place to visit though. There are two ways to see the famous geysers and bubbling mud pools: Te Puia and Whakarewarewa. Don't ask me how to pronounce that second one. Believe it or not, it's actually the town name's abbreviation. You can see the full name on the welcome sign. Whakarewarewa was the first one we visited. It is the living Maori village. A tourist attraction, but people live there. The people there live practically on top of the bubbling pools. They cook their food there in traditional wooden crates over steam vents, bathe in the hot springs and work together. It was a pretty amazing place to visit. We were treated to another rendition of the Haka and other traditional Maori dances as well as to a Hangi meal. The meal was cooked in the steam boxes and was, somewhat surprisingly, really good. I couldn't taste the sulfur at all. Though, at that point, I was pretty used to the smell. Just outside of the village are the larger lakes. There is steam everywhere as you walk around. I kept having to wipe my camera lens clean! Plus, my hair hated it. It was absolutely worth the visit though and I got some amazing photographs.