December 23rd Taupo: Rotorua

The original plan was to go to Rotorua, visit the museum and then go on to see more geothermal features. We began according to plan...drove to Rotorua (New Zealand roads have the most amazing scenery, and are amazingly unbusy as well) and went to the museum first.
The museum is inside the old bath house, built right at the beginning of the century, and soon attracting visitors coming from all over the world to take the cure there. It had its fair share of teething troubles - the highly sulphurous steam in the bathhouse reacted with the lead-based paint primer used on the furniture and turned it all black, so it had to be stripped back and repainted only a few months after the baths opened. And what it did to the pipe work and the metal fittings is nobody's business.
The museum has a fascinating display telling the story of the Te Arawa tribe from their landing in the area through their subsequent history up to the present day. And there was lots of geology as well for Rob, including an account of the major eruption in 1886 that destroyed the famous Pink Terraces that were such a feature of tourism in the area. I liked the accounts of the female Maori guides who were such an amazing collection of women, and the collectable souvenirs featuring them for Victorian to buy and take home with them.
The museum was so interesting that we never managed to go and find any geysers for Rob to see...but there was always the next day:)