The Virtual Reinhard
Created | Updated Feb 9, 2006
A Letter from Rotorua Part 2
Hells Gate Spa and Mud Bath
We packed all our clothes into plastic boxes and were shown by the cheery Maori attendant to our personal mud bath, screened off by rush matting walls. A rectangular hole in the ground contained hot water piped from the mud fields and a thin layer of the mud itself. The attendant hosed in a bit of cold to bring the temperature down to a bearable level and then we lazed around in the water and smothered each other in the silky mud.
It was very relaxing but also quite hot, so when our allotted twenty minutes was up, we willingly sluiced down with ice cold water from the hose.
From the bath, we went straight into the warm spa, which featured an almost scalding hot waterfall that was wonderful to lie under as we straightened the travel kinks out of our bodies.
This was a more public pool and other people came and went until finally, reluctantly, we climbed out for a final shower, feeling all floppy and relaxed.
Before going into the spa, we had been warned to remove all silver jewellery, in case it got tarnished by the sulphur. That night, safely showered (and after removing an amazing amount of crystallised mineral from our hair), we put our rings back on. In the morning, we woke to the vivid stench of old pond water and noticed that all the silver had gone completely black from the remaining residues in our skin.
Lady Knox Geyser
By means of some manipulation with old rags and soap, the Lady Knox Geyser is persuaded to erupt each morning at 10:15am. We actually got there at 10:45, in time to encounter streams of buses, cars and campervans coming in the opposite direction. However, when we got to the site itself, the geyser was still quite impressively erupting, with the added bonus that the surrounding wooden amphitheatre, built to hold hundreds of spectators, was almost empty.
