Day 51: Nobody Warned Me About the Smell

Rotorua is surrounded by volcanic activity. White clouds billow from the ground as if the smokestacks of industrial factories lie just below the ground.

And it smells absolutely awful.

I noticed it almost immediately and my first thought was "low tide?" I knew I was near Lake Rotorua, but lakes don't have tides.

I brushed it off and went out for lunch where I got a view of the ever-changing weather patterns of Rotorua. Just in the time I was sitting at lunch I watched sunny blue sky change to heavy rain, and finally back to sunny again. I actually postponed getting the check in a hope that the rain would pass, and it did.

Alright, before I go much further I should mention my morning. I just had to say something about the smell.

Getting to Rotorua wasn't the easiest thing in the world. I got on my shuttle (actually the same shuttle and even the same driver that took me from Auckland to Hot Water Beach, so that was a nice surprise) and got dropped off at a town called Thames. From there I had a bus booked to a town called Tauranga, and then I still needed to figure out how to get to Rotorua from there. I was confident I would figure it out, it just weighed on my mind.

The problem is that Hot Water Beach doesn't get a lot of bus travel, so rather than get a bus straight to Rotorua, I had to hop around.

Fortunately, when I got off at Thames, I remembered what my shuttle driver Gary had said when we passed through the town on our way to Hot Water Beach. He said it was the hub of travel for the area. On a hope I quickly searched for a bus from Thames to Rotorua, and found one that left a few minutes before my other bus. I booked my trip as both buses pulled into that station. So I quickly canceled my bus to Tauranga and boarded my new bus, bound to Rotorua. With one brief transfer, but still to Rotorua!

So it was a long morning, but I made it into Rotorua in the early afternoon. I checked into my hostel after lunch. Rock Solid Backpackers. Very cheap and very good rooms. If you ever find yourself in Rotorua, I recommend it.

The staff was very helpful too, helping me out with booking a great tour of Wai-O-Tapu, a nearby thermal park that looks very promising. Also working around the hours of my Hobbiton tour, so I don't miss anything.

With so much day left to spend I decided to do some laundry. I know, not the most exciting thing, but it had to be done. Tonight is going to be mostly a general maintenance check for me. Clean clothes,  nice shower, make sure I'm ready for Hobbiton tomorrow.

It sounds like I have a hot date with Hobbiton. The feelings are definitely comparable. Excitement, fear that she'll cancel last minute... but mostly excitement.

Anyway, back to the smell. I did look it up to confirm my suspicions that it is the smell of sulfur wafting around town. A smell that is often compared to rotten eggs.

Rotorua is great though. I had lost my appetite somewhat from the smell, made myself go out to find dinner anyway, and the fantastic Rotorua cooking brought my appetite back enough to eat a whole chicken burger. So I have a new slogan for Rotorua: "Great! ...even though it smells."

I hope no one gets offended by that.

Thanks for reading and here's to tomorrow.

P.S. I don't have any photos from today (which is why the thumbnail photo is a random photo of me from yesterday) but make sure to go check out yesterday's post because I did get around to adding those photos I promised.

P.P.S. The smell today reminded me of a flash fiction story I wrote about a year ago. For those unfamiliar with the term "flash fiction" it is a type of fiction that is extremely short. The challenge (that was given to me by a weekly writing challenge online) was to write a ten word story. This is short even for flash fiction. Here it is:

"On my first grave-robbing, nobody warned me about the smell."

Not my greatest achievement but I still enjoy thinking about the character and the situation he or she is in. The glory of flash fiction. If you are interested in the subject check out www.100wordstory.org - One of my favorite sites because each story only takes a minute or two to read (since they're each only one hundred words). So that's where today's title came from, but also seriously, nobody warned me about the smell.