Farting in Rotarua

After our adventure up north, we drove straight passed Auckland to our next destination - Waitomo Caves.
Why we passed Auckland without stopping - only taking this one picture right from the highway?

Because of many reasons: I've been there before, there are only skyscrapers to see, but mostly because we had to make cuts somewhere and this just wasn't our priority. I am sure that one can have a grand time there seeing beautiful things, but we had something much more exciting planned...

We went blackwater rafting in the Waitomo Caves!

Blackwater rafting is a sport, where you sit on a rubber tube (and sometimes jump and crawl) through a cave that has a river running through. This sounds spookey and exciting as it is, the reason so many do it in Waitomo, is due to the poo of some very interesting animals...

...New Zealand Glowworms.

These worms live in these caves and produce a slimy string in which they try to catch insects which are drawn towards the strings because the end of their bottom is glowing in beautiful colors.

Gliding through the water looking up and watching these lights is calming and beautiful.
Jumping over small waterfalls within the cave and quickly getting on the rubber tube again in order to not miss any of the beauty is something I recommend to everyone who visits New Zealand.

After this amazing experience we continued our journey towards Rotarua. Anyone who hadn't been to an active vulcano area where sulfur evaporates and deodorises the air, cannot imagine the smell that hits you when entering Rotarua.
Usually everyone thinks that someone farted in the car and opens the window, just to realize with terror that it smells way worse outside!

However Rotarua and its sourrounding area has so much cool stuff to offer, that I love to be there. Aand you don't smell it anymore after one or two days...

Naturally there is a lot of cool vulcanic activity to see all around. I once biked around the lake Rotorua, when I suddenly realized that the mud right next to the biking trail was bubbeling! The lake is so hot, that water evaporarises towards the sky any day or night and new geysirs can erupt anywhere in the city at any time - although this is very rare...

We went and visited one of the geothermal sites where the little lakes had so many different colors and water evaporised everywhere...