Climbing and sulphur spas in the Yellowstone of the North Island
You can smell Rotorua before you see it. The pungent smell of sulfur and overripe cooked eggs hits the nostrils just as we drive past the sign “We put the ROT in Rotorua”. I like it - you can see steam and gas rising from bushes and vents seemingly in the middle of parks and between houses. It reminds me of the scenery in Yellowstone, but somehow it feels more urban and less touristy.
Running along the main street in Rotorua it seems that every corner, bush and lawn is sprouting hot fumes
Rotorua was known as the “Vegas of New Zealand” according to Brent. Motels with “in unit spas” line the main street with neon signs flashing and advertising all kinds of accommodation, spa services and kids facilities. Bus shuttles for the various geyser parks - Te Puia, Wai-O-Tapu, Hells Gate - rumble along the wide tree-lined avenue.
Our first stop is the climbing gym. Ever since picking up climbing with Brent’s daughter Inez over the Holidays in the US, Brent and I have been trying to fit in as many climbing gym visits while we’re in New Zealand. It’s part of our preparation for our mountaineering adventures in February. With the exception of the rope and the Grigri belaying devices, everything appears to be different between the US and New Zealand. For one, the rating system is on a different scale - in the US, it goes from 5.1 to 5.13, while in New Zealand it seems to go from 13-ish to 28-ish with very rough translating guidelines between the two.
There are other more noticeable differences. In New Zealand the rope attached to the belaying device is anchored to the floor with the belayer acting as a feeder of the rope, but not as the main anchor like it is in the US. Finally, the climbing end is attached to the climber’s harness via two carabiners facing the opposite way. In Planet Granite in the US, we were taught to tie ourselves to the rope by a figure eight knot followed by a fisherman’s knot. In New Zealand, it’s quicker to get on and off routes but Brent’s worried we will forget how to tie our knots by the time we take our mountaineering course.
The climbing gym in Rotorua is attached to a Backpackers hostel and a movie theater. Halfway up the wall, I turn around to see a lounge on the second floor separated by a glass pane. A skinny guy is staring at me from the top of his laptop, five empty beer bottles on his table. He looks like he’s judging my slow progress up a relatively easy route. I can hear the dialogue from the movie through the thin walls separating the gym from the movie theatre. I don’t have time to pay much attention to either lounge guy or the movie soundtrack though. It’s hot and my hands are sweating so much I feel I have to dip them in the chalk bag after every move.
Brent has decided that the Rotorua gym is least friendly place he’s been to in New Zealand. He says that the few people milling around appear to be hard-core climbers focused on comparing themselves and judging others. I don’t disagree. We like the Auckland gym better - they are used to beginners showing up and are friendly to everyone who’s there to climb, regardless of level. At the Auckland gym, “Extreme Climbing”, one of the instructors was happy to come over and show us how to climb the first part of a 5.17 route that had been frustrating us as we scratched our heads in bewilderment trying to figure out how to get past the first two holds. The instructor looked like a wiry spider and made the elbow lock on the thin wedge look super easy. In Rotorua, we are left to ourselves. The gym is the smallest we’ve seen and there are only a few routes under the 18 rating, so after a few hours we are done.
Following a quick dinner in one of the only “purely vegetarian” places we have seen in New Zealand, we are happy to go to bed on a real mattress for the first time after 5 nights spent on our mats in a tent. The next day, Brent goes for a mountain bike ride in the Whakarewarewa Red Woods Mountain Bike Park, the site of a recent mountain bike championship, while I run by lake Rotorua.
The route of my morning run by Rotorua Lake
The running trail
I'm often asked if there are any dangerous or poisonous beasts in New Zealand. The true answer is no. Most of the creatures you see are birds, like this cheeky pukeko that runs around like a chicken by lake Rotarua
As far as geysers go, we decide to visit a geyser park after our run and ride. We walk around the geysers of Hell’s Gate - the ones that were named by the famous British playwright George Bernard Shaw. As a playwright, he chose appropriately dramatic names for the scenery - there are the Sodom and Ghomor pools, the Devil’s Pitchfork and of course Hell’s Gate pool and area.
The mud volcano
The site is run by the Maori and everything is labeled and explained. There is a hot waterfall where Maori warriors would go to clean the “tapu” (karma) of the battle and chiefs would bathe their male newborns. We also see a growing volcano mini-cone, which is 2 meters in height and keeps on growing. Towards the end of our visit, we dip our feet into the “foot spa” - a hot water stream with mud, conveniently outfitted with benches along its side by the enterprising Maori. We end the visit by dipping ourselves into the sulphur spa - a grey-yellow colored water pool fed by a stream directly from the geysers. I could stay here all day, but we have a 2 hour drive ahead of us to Tongariro, so we bid goodbye to this “paradise from hell”.
