I am staying at Cactus Jack's hostel in Rotorua, tourist capitol of New Zealand. Also home to the most geothermal activity. Cactus Jack's is set up like an old western town with jail cells as rooms and a hot pool. I have made quite a few friends. They gave us coupons for free coffee so tonight I made a friend from Israel and friend from Germany. We ended up talking for about 3 hours and I shared my 2-liter container of hokey pokey ice cream with them. Travel alone has been fabulous. I have met many people and although it can be lonely at times (like when I had fish and chips by myself for dinner tonight) it is over-all a wonderful thing. I am more vulnerable and thus more likely to meet other people.
Yesterday I arrived in the morning and wanted to make the most of my day. Everyone had been telling me that if I want to see geothermal features I should do it in Rotorua. So I head to the i site and find that there are about 3 options. That is, 3 privately owned and operated geothermal areas, each costing about $50 to enter. I was flabbergasted by the price after working in Yellowstone for 6 years and living around geothermal features. But I decided I'd go ahead and pay to visit one of the parks, because New Zealand is one of only a few places in the world to have geothermal activity. I chose Te Puia, or Whakapapa Village for 2 reasons:
1. It combined Maori culture with a show, tour, and history of Maori tribes in the area and
2. They advertised free corn boiled in one of the hot springs.
I would pay $50 any day for free corn. I knew before going that it would not be worth $50 but I decided to pay anyway. There was one geyser, quite a few mud pools and fumeroles (some of which sounded like a simmer--something I hadn't ever heard before). I was fascinated by the geothermal activity but was faced with a moral dilemma. Because they had charged me so much to enter, I found myself judging the geothermal features and measuring its value. This should not be so. I enjoyed my day, especially the free corn. The local Maori still use the hot springs for cooking, which was pretty interesting. I also attended a Maori dance show and volunteered to dance on the stage. Then yesterday evening I took a walk in the nearby city park and found that there were dozens of geothermal features scattered throughout the park. They seemed to be forgotten, or the rejected ones. I found trash scattered in some of them and pipes running through them, but they were equally as beautiful and fascinating as the ones I had seen earlier. So I asked myself: why are these less important? I felt annoyed that I had imposed an unnatural value system on natural phenomenon. It angered me that I had to pay $50 to see something that everyone should be able to see and appreciate. I went to bed confused.
Today I spent the day looking at more geothermal activity around Rotorua lake and walking through some California Redwoods. The sulfur and the pine made me smile and think of home. I also went to the Rotorua museum and had a most wonderful experience. As a side note, I had decided over the last few years that I pretty much hated museums but today I think I have changed my mind. I have renewed faith in museums. I went on a tour with only a handful of people and learned about the pink and white terraces (just like mammoth) that used to be here but the erruption of mt terewera in 1886 destroyed them. There was a picture of people in the 1800's standing in the terraces just like the one in Yellowstone. I also learned about the popular healing, curing spa that was in Rotorua from 1908 to the 60's. People from all over the world came to be healed. It was fascinating for me to learn about how Rotorua has used and perhaps abused the geothermal resources. They still use geothermal acitivity to heat homes, the hospitals, for many spas, and as energy. I was trying to figure out why some places are free and some are $50. I am still confused as to who actually manages or regulated geothermal use but I did start to understand a little bit about the expensive places. The Maori have historically used the area for tourism and although I think $50 is absurd, I respect the fact that this is their land. I still have many questions, but it has been a grat learning experience.
Well, tomorrow I go to a farm for a few days then off to Taupo for more geothermal fun and then MORDOR for some tramping. I'm having heaps of fun. Cool as, as they say here.
