Pitch and sulfur

The earth smokes and boils! The landscape awakens to life, producing thick fog and wondrous colors.

We finally arrived in Rotorua, one of our highly anticipated travel destinations. The city is located in one of the world's most active volcanic regions. In the middle of the city park, you can get a first impression of what that means. Where else can you find a bubbling city pond?

The city center resembles many other New Zealand cities, so we first set out to find a quiet place to spend the night. The next day, we wanted to explore the surroundings. The campground was very clean and idyllically located by a small stream, so we took a day off - vacation :-)

And today? We visited the thermal wonderland 'Wai-O-Tapu'. Can it be described? No, so let's let the photos speak for themselves:

The landscape is truly incredibly fascinating, almost as if the earth is alive beneath your feet. And as you can see, it's mostly pleasantly warm there. Unfortunately, the pictures don't capture the sublime smell of rotten eggs and stagnant boiling water. Very soothing for the nose. Let's just ignore the fact that it rained buckets most of the time. Conclusion: It was amazing!

And that should conclude our entry for today. But we don't want to withhold these three things from you:

1. Our overnight lodging for today:

2. The weather can change as well (rain/sun in under two minutes - world record!):

3. You can also develop a deep friendship with a duck, which is why it is our bird of the day:

P.S. For all insiders, this is the 'Rocky Duck'. We named it that because it has an astonishing resemblance to the behaviors of our cat. And pssssst: It also likes chips :-)