Fuming!

No it's not November 5th!

This is the Maori church of St Faith in Rotorua - over 100 years old (which qualifies as ancient history for New Zealand) it's right by the lakeside in an area of town where you're never far from a bubbling hot spring. The pungent scent of sulphur (rotten eggs to some) is never far away, although you do get used to it after a while. This is a town of around 60,000 inhabitants who mostly get on with their lives despite the very evident seismic activity, the town is at the side of Lake Rotorua (80 square kilometres in area) and the lake fills the huge crater of a volcano.

We thought we'd go and take a look inside St Faith's but our plans were thwarted by thermal activity - as we approached the entrance we found our way barred by a fence; a few days previously steam had started to emerge from the pathway to the church front door - evidence of a new hot spring. Apparently this happens all the time. (And note the graves either side of the path - they are raised up above ground level!)

Rotorua became famous as a spa town and folk would travel across the world to take the waters. The main bath house was on a scale to rival anything seen at Bath or Harrogate - the building still exits but it's now the Rotorua Museum - surely worth seeing on this fine morning.

However we didn't get into this either. The building had been destabilised by an earthquake less than five months ago and we weren't allowed in. So our trip was a little disappointing but we consoled ourselves by wiggling our toes in the free hot mineral baths in the local park joined by a dozen or so aged happy Chinese tourists.

A short trip of no more than 10 minutes from the middle of town brought us to a forest where hundreds of giant redwoods have stood for a hundred years or so. I love redwoods (sequoias from California) and have seen marvellous specimens in many parts of the world but two things to note - there are literally hundreds of them and secondly, they thrive here - these trees are growing three tines as quickly as redwoods in their native land - again something to do with the thermals perhaps?

Some nice beer here! These are special editions from the Moa Brewery - nice!!