At one point, as we walked along a wooden path that passed over a geothermal lake, we stopped in awe. It wasn't the amazing penny-gone-bad colors produced by the heat and sulfur (although those were beautiful). It was the sign, stuck right in the boiling lake just a few feet from us, complete with stick figure in motion and red circle with a line through it: no walking. We saw another later that warned we were not to smoke near the open vent.

Seriously.

Geothermal is a way of life for people who live in and around Rotorua. So is the rotten-eggs smell, which you do get used to.

Some Aucklanders call Rotorua by another name, "Roto-vegas" and it does feel that way. If you want to pack yourself into a big plastic ball and roll down a hill, here's where to go: the birthplace of Zorbing.

There is a lovely Victorian museum at the center of town that has a lot of the history (she did NOT like the movie, which was pretty loud and explode-y) and the travel center iSite is very large, has a snack bar, and can connect you all the cultural and seismic experiences you might want.

But the greatest places that we found are beyond Rotorua - at Te Puia, just a few minutes out of town, and at (despite its name) Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland.   There were guysers aplenty, lots of colors, and, at least at Waiotapu, not too many tourists when we went.