The photovan

Desmond Downs

January 2010 :

Tuesday morning I left for a really 'touristy' holiday for a change , no mountain climbing or sleeping in snow caves - I went to Rotorua , or should I say 'Rotten-rua' due to the thermal activity and associated smell .

I'm still getting used to the idea of going on holiday during 'holiday season' !
First I headed for Blue Lake because I wanted to camp there for some relaxation - normally there are 4 or 5 other people there ... not this time !

I took a walk around the camping ground and decided it was too crowded and spoke to the receptionist who told me about another lake with less people called "Rerewhakaaitu" [ don't lose your false teeth trying to say that ] so I headed off [ still sorting through pictures :smile: ]

There was an amusing sign there though ....

After a while I got to the unpronounceable campsite , not much compared to the scenery I am used to but at least it wasn't infested with tourists [ wait a bit , I'm also one of those !] . I decided to stay there for the night .

" No fireworks " ? I'll be careful what I eat ok ?

I decided to go for a walk on the edge of the lake .

One good thing about patchy clouds is that it can turn the same scene into a pleasant variety of scenes .... the incoming road ....

Then I went past this old Maori canoe ...

And headed for the gardens

Past this statue

and toward the old bath-house

There's something to look at just about everywhere you go in Rotorua ....

Hmmm , a wedding expo coming up ....

I decided to go into that big building that I've only walked past before and it turned out to be a museum of the 'old bath-house' .
I watched a 20 minute movie of its history which was actually quite well presented , they told some interesting stories and included the old legends of why there was thermal activity - something about monsters being locked in the earth ....

I shot a lot of these at around iso 3200 with the D90 . I wished I had my D40 with the 35mm 1.8 lens on it actually .

[ One thing I forgot to mention , during that film , when they start talking about volcanic eruptions , try not to jump too high when all the motorized seats start moving ]

There were a variety of baths there ...

The water may have been a bit hot in some though !

Then I ventured down to the basement for some dark pictures at iso 3200 .

After leaving the basement ....

I headed for the lookout on the roof ...

And then I photographed one more 'shadow' and left

past these statues ....

On my walk back to camp I was contemplating what I would do on my last day there .... the boat was out of the question [ I get very sea-sick ] .

then there was the option of helicopter tours - I'd never been in a helicopter

This guy wasn't too sure of their mascot though ....

crazy tourists everywhere still .....

and then there was the option of the gondola .....

and as you can see from the last image the next day I went and booked a helicopter flight for 12:45 and headed off up the gondola to check out the action there and get some scenery .
There is a large swing at the top that cranks its passengers up very high and then releases them at quite a speed ....

Then I saw this lady and said to her "you've got to let me get a picture of that shirt for the photography forums" and she agreed .

And no thread about Rotorua is complete without pictures of 'the luge' which is good fun ! .....

Before I got in the helicopter I saw good reason not to take my camera in the jet boat ride !

Now the helicopter trip - it lasted 15 minutes but it was small and the ride was bumpy .

The video ....

The pictures ....

On our return there was some more decent scenery ....

and surprisingly I noticed something I had never seen in this city , behind the old bath-house museum I had gone through earlier . A large patch of thermal activity ....