Rotorua announces itself with a smell. The sulphur drifting from the geothermal fields has an eggy tang that takes a few minutes to get used to, and then you stop noticing. The town of about sixty-five thousand people sits on the shore of Lake Rotorua, inside an ancient volcanic caldera, and the ground beneath it steams, bubbles and spurts in a way that makes the place unlike anywhere else in the country.
The Te Arawa people have lived here for centuries, using the hot pools for cooking and bathing, and the cultural heart of the area is at Whakarewarewa, where a living village still cooks in steaming ground and bathes in natural pools. The Pōhutu geyser, nearby, can shoot water up to thirty metres into the air, several times a day. Hāngī, a feast cooked in an earth oven, is the local food to try, and it is not difficult to find. The Government Gardens, with a handsome Tudor-style bathhouse built in 1908, tell the other side of the story, when the town was a spa for Edwardian visitors.
The nearby forest is a surprise. Whakarewarewa Forest, planted in the early twentieth century, includes giant Californian redwoods, with a canopy walk and mountain bike trails running through their shade. The lake holds Mokoia Island, the setting of the romantic legend of Hinemoa, who swam across the water to meet her lover Tūtānekai, guided by the sound of his flute. The lakes around the town are blue, green or milky depending on minerals.
For a rider, Rotorua is a good base. The roads south towards Taupō and the national park are smooth, with long bends through forest and farmland, and are best on a dry morning. Traffic is heavy at times, with trucks hauling logs, and fog can sit in the valleys at dawn. The rain can be heavy, and the ground can steam in the cold.
Fuel and services are abundant, with stations and workshops all over town, and Tokoroa, about thirty-five kilometres south, is another large centre. Eat something local, then go.
Leave early, with the smell of sulphur behind you, and head south towards the volcanoes. The day will be long, and it will be full.