Happiness Is a Warm Spa

After the sulfur lake, there wasn't much else to do in Rotorua at night. I wandered around the public gardens for a bit and snapped a few pics under the drear of the evening. The boiling pools were fascinating.

the Rotorua Museum, closed due to structural problems

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even the water in this picturesque pond is hot

description of the gardens which I am too lazy to type out

Princes Gate with Maori statues

I grabbed a bite and some beer at a craft brewery, which seems to be as big a deal as craft beer in America, and a good thing, too, because their big beer, Steinlager, is about as bad as Crudweiser.

That grew dull. Without barstools, you can't talk to strangers, and the one local I did talk to had such a thick accent I could barely understand what he was saying, so I left and walked to the lake.

But the wind was fierce, and I decided to look for something indoors to do. Rotorua shuts down so early. Many restaurants closed at 9pm. Fortunately, the perfect place did not close until 11pm - the Polynesian Spa.

It was fantastic. I soaked in geothermal pools for an hour. The waters were so warm that the 50 degree outside temperatures didn't matter, and when the rain started, it felt cool and wonderful. The pools were outside by the lake, which seemed much calmer than it had been in the daylight.

My skin felt rejuvenated when I got out of the water (although it smelled faintly of sulfur even after showering), and a wound I had on my knee healed because of those pools. Every little ache and pain I had seemed to disappear. There's really something to the healing powers of the waters - it's not just some homeopathic nonsense or an old superstition. The indigenous Maori people have used geothermal waters for medicinal purposes for generations, especially for skin ailments and rheumatic diseases.

I never intended to go to the spa but because of the town's early closing, I ended up doing one of the best things of the trip. I'd do it again in a second.