Rotorua

ROTORUA THERMAL AND MUD POOLS!!! WAY COOL!

There is actually a village of Maoris that live in amongst these Thermal pools. They use them (the steam gets to over 200 degrees Celcius!) for cooking, cleaning and bathing. It is all geothermal energy so there is no need for an outside power source. They stick the food they're making for dinner in one of the steam pools and pick it up after their day of work (in the village at the shops, tours, etc) and it's ready to eat! They steam fish in the pools, it usually takes about 3-4 minutes to steam a fish. There are more photos in my Kodak album, really an amazing thing to see! Oh, the bubbling picture of the mud at the top: that mud is too hot to touch, so there are fences all around that very large area. The mud is used for a host of skin conditions including eczema and psoriasis.