Day 136 Whitianga-Rotorua, New Zealand

Rotorua was next on the list of places to stay or Sulphur City as it could be called with its volcanic landscape of thermal springs, geysers, bubbling mud pools, lakes and the smell that goes with it. Once there every so often you get a smell of rotten eggs that after awhile hits the back of your throat and makes you feel like you want to vomit. How anyone would want to live here is beyond me and if people ever get used to the smell I know I certainly couldn’t.
The hostel we were staying in was called The Funky Green Voyager and if you ever want a peaceful and relaxing place to stay in Rotorua then I recommend this is the place to stay. Its definitely in the Top 5 of all the hostels ive stayed in so far and it was all the more enjoyable with all the friendly people who were staying there to. Here I met Adam a guy from Yugoslavia who on arrival in New Zealand wasn’t sure what he wanted to do so came up with the idea he would buy a bike a cycle around from place to place. It amazed me how little luggage he was carrying on his trip. I swear he had less than half the amount of luggage compared to what I was carrying. He would only ever book one night at a time and then either move on or if he liked the place he would just book another night. There was us arranging accommodation nearly a week in advance thinking places may be completely booked and he didn’t have a care in the world.
There was also a lot of Germans in the hostel including 2 who turned up and after one noticed I was reading a Lance Armstrong book turned out to be a cycling fanatic as well. Oh what fun I had laughing and joking with them about the German cyclist Jan (fat boy) Ullrich. I think they were quite possibly the 2 crazyiest Germans ive ever met. I asked them why they had come to New Zealand and their reason was to meet a friend for a cup of coffee. After laughing for several minutes wondering whether these guys were insane they told me it was true. Apparently an ex work collegue of theirs had left Germany for New Zealand to open a coffee shop and they had said the day it opens they would come over and visit him. So here they were in New Zealand to meet a friend just for a cup of coffee.