Tonight, we dine... IN HELL!
October 4, 2008
Rotorua really does lend itself to the whole world of the Damned thing. It borders a caldera lake with a semi-active volcano. The mouth of Hell itself has been dormant for centuries, but there is still a lot of thermal activity here (legends have it that a princess was drowned, and the gods made that part of the lake boil forever to destroy the water demons). And with volcanic thermal activity comes sulfur. And I mean a lot of sulfur. Poohee.
Our bus driver whimsically remarked that Rotorua was one of his favorite places in the world, because it’s one of the only places where you can rip the meanest fart you can muster while walking down the street and not have anybody take the slightest notice. The smell of rotting eggs and underworld decay is rampant in the street, so overpowering that I find it a wonder that people actually manage to live here at all…
Just passing through this time round. I’ll probably stop over again on the way back up to Auckland, since the tour to Hobbiton starts from here…