From Middle Earth to our Earth: LotR Tour #4

Rotorua: Days 4-5

New Zealand has countless attractions that didn’t feature in the Lord of the Rings films. These natural wonders awe as much as any fantastical landscape. In the spirit of the elves who adored nature while singing and dancing through the forests and under the stars, let’s explore some beautiful New Zealand sites!

We spent just over a day in Rotorua, an area in the center of the northern island known for its geothermal activity, but also boasting a tribute to native history and even its own redwood forest!

Mitai Maori Village

New Zealand actively seeks to reclaim and honor the heritage of its indigenous people, the Maori. In the Mitai village, visitors can tour a recreation of the traditional-style buildings, watch a war canoe paddle down the stream, and attend a ceremonial meeting of tribes before enjoying a sumptuous traditional feast steamed underground for four hours. The meeting reenactment where the Maori villagers greeted the tourists contained multiple intricacies, including the laying down of a branch as a peace offering, speeches in the native languages, and song to support and add heart to what was said—a tradition in common with many of Tolkien’s people groups, who often burst into poetic song.

Amid the lush forest surrounding this village is a spring with water so clear it looks only a foot deep, when in fact it’s actually closer to six feet, with beautiful blue sand at the bottom. After nightfall, tiny glow worms—mere pinpricks to the naked eye—light up the embankments around streams with incredible brightness.

Geothermal Wonderland

Countless craters, steam pits, geysers, and mud pots dot the area around Rotorua—and fill the air with their distinctive sulfur scent. In fact, one stream is called Kerosene Creek due to its pungent smell. While we didn’t enjoy the scents, we did wonder at the sights of the vivid hot springs, which ranged from lime green to red to turquoise and much in between! The largest hot spring in the world, Frying Pan Lake, is here in New Zealand, and formed in 1886 when an eruption destroyed the previous tourist attraction of pink and white terraces. Now the Cathedral Pinnacles rise up from the lake’s edge, mysteriously swathed in steam.

A stream overflows from the lake, striped with different colors of algae thriving in the high temperatures. Many of the waters have surface temperatures over 100°F. Farther down, Inferno Crater’s stunning blue waters conceal a geyser beneath the surface, which erupts during a 15-day cycle that causes the water level to rise about 18 feet!

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Redwood Forest

We rose in elevation, too, by climbing onto elevated walkways between the trees of New Zealand’s redwood forest. The California trees were among many imported for the potential lumber industry, but they thrived and grew so much faster on the island that their wood lacked the desired density. The area has been transformed into a park where visitors can journey across platforms and bridges slung high above the ground. Like the elves of Lothlorien, we delighted to rest high among the forest leaves. The view afforded many kinds of ferns, both the black variety as well as the silver that is New Zealand’s national plant.

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New Zealand: A True Land of Fantasy

While not in a fantasy realm of Tolkien’s writing, we journeyed into another world unlike our home in the Rocky Mountains and discovered many beautiful and fascinating sights in New Zealand. The next day, however, we would travel to no less than five Lord of the Rings film sites on a sojourn of epic proportions! Join me next time on our journey to Middle Earth, from the River Anduin to Mount Doom itself!

Journey to Middle Earth Series:
Day 1: Living Like Hobbits (Auckland)
Day 2: To Middle Earth and Beyond! (Port Waikato & Hot Water Beach)
Day 3-4: Hobbiton (Matamata)
Day 5: Geothermal Wonderland (Rotorua)
Day 6: The Forests and Rivers of Middle Earth (North Island)
Day 7: Weta Workshop & the Forests of Middle Earth (Wellington)
Day 8: Paths of the Dead (Putangirua Pinnacles)
Day 9: Flight of Fantasy (Wellington & Christchurch)
Day 10: Edoras, Capital of Rohan (Mount Sunday)
Day 11: Lake Pukaki (Laketown)
Days 12-14 part 1: Queenstown (Isengard, Lothlorien, Ithilien, and more!)
Days 12-14 part 2: Queenstown (Argonath, Dimrill Dale, Rohan, and more!)

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