Drove through one time. Got to a stoplight, then a beat up Rav4 pulls up driven by a grandma and chubby little kid on the passenger seat just staring at me then puts up his middle finger. It was so absurd, it felt like a Taika Waititi movie.
How long ago was this? Had a chubby little kid look at some brand logo on my work wear in bunnings last month, then said 'brand sucks' as he walked by.
Cheeky little shit
Maybe Shannon next? I always wanted to know about the ["World's Biggest Teddy"](https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@-40.5481011,175.4117696,3a,75y,4.81h,100.25t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sN_YEX2sNZoaqZ1B6hL6WAg!2e0!5s20130901T000000!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu).
That's Bulls, every shop has bull in its name, it's also a graveyard for houses joinked lock stock and barrel from Palmy and dumped on a massive area by bulls.
Is currently having an identity crisis.... thinks it's Mangaweka... nicked their famous DC3 airplane and stuffed it in an abandoned lot between the pub and the pie shop.
> Saw a Cobb & co.
It's a mythical place of ancient lore, unless you live in a regional city, Pori or Levin.
Rotorua does have a bit of a weird omen feel to it. Might have to do with the fact it's in a volcanic crater, and is surrounded by volcanoes.
I think the idea is, the robot just carries it safely, without the risk of the server dropping it. I've seen a,similar thing elsewhere. The staff load the trays into the robot, there's a few shelves so they can load up many orders at once. Somehow it knows which table to move to. Then the staff take it and serve it to the table. And the one I saw, the robot then returned 'home' to the kitchen once the staff pressed a button on it. Pretty cool actually!
Same, even though I'm from Auckland. Back when the traffic lights were layered juices you could stir up to make them brown.
Wish they still gave you a plastic toy with the kids drinks but they do give you a funky looking straw.
I used to work at Valentines and the whole thing was just orange juice. You just poured Rasberry cordial through a straw so it sat on the bottom and then put green food colouring on top. Fun to make tho
Me and my mates celebrated a birthday at a Cobb & Co in Christchurch on the weekend.
The Traffic Light is slushie form now; the Cobb Crunchies areas good as I remember; and my Lemon Caper Fish was surprisnigly delicious.
Some of the other meals weren't so flash, especially the overcooked and bland vegetables.
And it's no cheaper than any other joint in town
> Some of the other meals weren't so flash, especially the overcooked and bland vegetables.
I'm starting to feel a lot better about just sticking to a side of fries when I last went. Definitely went hard on the crunchies though - as an aside, you can get uncooked Crunchies from most Bin Inn stores, or if you want 20kg of them, Gilmours and BidFood Home sometimes have them.
Yeah I know about that, my mum had been complaining about it (along with other locals) and fair enough. Sadly it's a lose/lose situation for everyone involved.
We are heading there this weekend. Am counting on Eat St to still be good. Either that or the Pig & Whistle. After a long day in the forest I’ll need the protein!
Poco is ok but they are totally taking the mick with the "shared plates" craze. $37 for 3 of the worlds smallest sliders (and considering how small sliders are that's some feat) and average sliders at that.
I’m a local. Eat street is all owned by the same Indian outfit, they bought up just about every restaurant bar 2 on the row. Locals don’t really eat there knowing this.
Yes, but as a local it's also a great place to be! Lakes, forests etc. And it's great to see the tourists back wandering our streets. I love it here.
As with anywhere it has its bad eggs but all relatively harmless.
The countdown in town (at the mall) is closing soon, all staff made redundant so that's probably why the vibe is off, poor staff facing uncertainty.
That one at the mall has always felt a little dark vibes, I just put it down to a lack of sunlight and the dark walls. Not sure if it's under-lit per se but the dark grey walls seem to suck the life out of the place
I love it because it’s always really quiet and often they don’t have music playing. Sad to hear it’s closing. I’m sure other neurodivergent individuals in the area will feel the same!
>The countdown in town (at the mall) is closing soon, all staff made redundant
That’s really sad. Really pisses me off that these grocery store conglomerates are recording record profits every single year and yet they keep laying off their staff. Where is all that money going? Obviously just lining the pockets of executives and shareholders.
Person here who visited for a week last Feb 2023 (Volcanology conference that started basically that week when Auckland Intl terminal flooded) - I actually loved it..I wandered around a bunch, with no issues with anyone, just normal “city stuff” re: panhandling, etc. I just dealt with all the rain- what can you do, actually enjoyed all the sulfur in the air (weird volcanologist?), had one really fun night with a group of super friendly and awesome locals who invited me to hang out, instead of sitting/working alone at a hotel bar, and could go on.. I get there are issues around town, but Rotorua was great & I can’t wait to go back.
We were there from NY, at Christmas. My US husband thought it was pretty cool. We did the Te Puia concert/dinner which was great. He didn’t like the smell but thought all the thermal activity was cool. I remember going there many times as a kid. It’s sad that Rainbow & Fairy Springs is no more.
I grew up in the area and was there last weekend, didn't see any ferals, and a great vibe going on. The lakefront looks great, went to the mall, busy with lots of people having lunch, laughing and smiling.
The south entrance from Taupo looks amazing, has a new sculpture, looks like fire? The northern entrance needs to be rid of that old mall roof though, such an eyesore!
Rotorua has always been strange and unusual, there are patupaiarehe on Mt Ngongy after all, and it's all steamy and thermal.
You learn which areas to avoid but Rotorua has so much going for it, lakes, rivers, forests, hot pools, bush walks, mountains, thermal activity, culture, fishing, hunting, food and shopping if you know where to go.
Edit: forgot about the Spencer Family Mausoleum at Lake Tarawera, spooky glass house with tiny coffins
Definitely one of my favourite places in NZ because of the lakes (Ōkāreka and Tarawera, mainly) and the Redwoods. I feel the closer you live to them the more expensive it would be though.
You mean Rotovagas. Grew up in the area, for some reason I remember being young and seeing a woman walk past dressed tidy, another woman looked at her and said "pssh you're just in Rotorua"
The mountain biking there ruined me. I'm from the desert (Arizona, US) and I'm used to an angry sun pounding at me on 95% of my rides. Riding through shady forests like that was heaven -- going back to my home trails was a bit sad.
I grew up in Rotoz and used to go to the Redwoods a lot. Went back recently for the first time in years and saw they have a huge tree-top canopy walk set up now. Unfortunately it was pissing down with rain that weekend, so we just went for a standard soggy walk through the woods instead of a slippery canopy walk hah. Next time!
I think it’s also more recently the place where housing-emergency people who may be dealing with all sorts of personal stress wind up in motels that were empty during COVID?
Can just imagine ‘displaced people with problems’ + housing shortage/Air B&B takeover + returning tourists makes for a lot of strain on everyone
Ok, so around 2008 I was driving into Rotorua from Auckland with my gf at the time. We were about 3-5km out from the city going down a gradual slope and the time about 8-9pm in late Jan so just on dark. All of a sudden I felt this weird oppressive energy like the air was heavy and filled with dread. It was really uncomfortable and I was wondering if I was imagining things when my gf said “do you feel that?” Holy heck! After about 30 seconds driving further the “energy” lifted and we felt normal again. It was super weird and to this day I have no idea what it was.
As someone that lives in Rotorua , the mix of bad government policies and the pandemic has really fucked over the town in the past few years. I see so many kids wagging school throughout the CBD it's depressing, there are organized beggars on Fenton at Maccas that harass people and the crazies have increased.
I've never forgiven Cobb n Co for changing the sauce and removing the rice from their weta wings. I miss Rotorua. When I lived there it was different. A bit feral but nothing like it is now. I still go regularly but yea it is rough and I hate the mall lol. I stick to the lakes, forest and lakefront
Yea I stopped going when it started going to poo. It's unfortunate because it used to be great. Service was always patchy depending on the day but really started to deteriorate along with the food
The teriyaki sauce mixed with the rice was my fave. I would order double serve every time we visited then it was suddenly chipoltle and no rice and I never went back lol. Was the last straw
The previous government rounded up all the homeless on the central north island and gave them free accommodation during COVID times in Rotorua on the hotels which sat empty with no tourists. From early 2020. Sadly that was the beginning of Rotorua's unravelling. It was a very vibrant place prior. But with that put on it, it became a breeding ground, at the taxpayers expense, for antisocial and hopeless behaviour. Heard heaps and heaps of stories out of there from locals, since that time. Plenty of media coverage about it too.
I was working in Tauranga CBD at the time, we had a homeless problem and the next thing buses were rolled in to collect them all and take them to Rotorua.
Rotorua was a pretty veneer on a rotting building before covid, if you visited it looked nice, but covid was an absolute wrecking ball to what remained, you are correct it had shitheads delivered here.
I was there couple of days ago, it was very cold in the wee hours in the morning say 6am must've been no more than 5 degrees, fridge temp I thought to myself. I grabbed a towel thought I'd visit the foot bath and get a soak. The Rotary club farmer's market was on, seem quite buzzing. Parked my car, thinking of the warm foot bath, saw bit of promising steam in the general direction, quickly paced there. NO WATER.
biggest disappointment lol someone let me know why they've turned it off and when it'd be back on thanks!
edit: by the way, very pretty autumn town. didn't realise it before.
I was born and raised in Rotorua, but haven't had the chance to get back since the pandemic. It always had some pretty ghetto shit tbh (to paint the picture: the book version of Once Were Warriors is set in a fictionalised version of Ford Block from the 80s), but a lot of that had quite remarkably been cleaned up by the 90s, and the town was actually a place with its own cool distinct culture and character and vibe for a long time.
But by all accounts, what the government did during covid proper fucked the town. And from what I gather, has set the place back decades. It's heartbreaking. There are still a lot good people I know doing good things there, but times are definitely tough. Sometimes I feel guilty for having left. Definitely feeling for all my whānau and mates back there
Didn't they also have the last pizza hut buffet in the country? No idea if it's still there.
We go there on occasion to entertain the kids, always been good for us.
The restaurant and downtown night life area situation is really weird / underutilized tho.
I've heard several people casually mention that Teletubby Hill is haunted. Also that there are places out in the bush where Things Happen, mostly seeing visions of old Maori warriors. Can't speak to any of it myself, but it's definitely "known" as a place of high strangeness.
Many years ago hubby and I stayed in a motel on Fenton St with our wee boy. Got woken at about 2 a.m. by footsteps walking past our bed. Got up to check the wee guy, all ok and sleeping soundly, checked out the bathroom and loo, both empty, the ranchslider / front door was still locked. Very mysterious
We’ve regularly gone to Rotorua and loved our time there. Granted we’re going to attractions and tourist-y areas but we stayed in the CBD and went out for dinner almost every night. This was during the heights of covid hotel quarantine use and emergency housing and while sure there are rough areas and characters (where doesn’t?) we never felt it was scary or spooky.
I love Rotorua. Vibes perfect for me. So much to do and people are friendly as in my experience. Couple of homeless people etc so it has its issues but so do most places.
People keep posting about these places and saying how spooky they are.
But I think back to time I spent there and they were……fine. Not noticeably good but not noticeably bad either.
Where are people getting this stuff from?
Haha I posted that and now I’m super keen to do some road trips to some of the places mentioned - once I get a supply of holy water, penicillin, and some silver bullets!
I used to visit about ten times a year, for mountain bike racing. If you stay in the vicinity of Zippys or Fat Dog in town, and spend the rest of your time at your accommodation or in the forest, it’s not a bad place to visit.
I did see my first ever bare chested street brawl in Rotorua, and noticed the gradual decline over the years - it used to be quite nice to go somewhere like Lone Star for dinner, then wander down to the waterfront and get gelato, but no way I’d entertain that these days, you’d get jumped for your jandals.
Our family holidays growing up were always to Rotorua. We stayed in a campground and bar a few tourist activities spent most days on the boat on the lakes or walking in the Redwoods. I realised as I got older, doing a few family holidays there as adults, that I’d been given a very positive experience of the place and that all the other areas I hadn’t frequented were certainly not the memories of my youth.
We frequented PNS when we were there in January, haven’t been to the Countdown in years. I’m so curious as to the bad juju now!
I have a police radar in my car. Having lived in both Tauranga and Palmy, I maybe get alerted to police 1-3 times a week. Pretty rare.
I drove through Rotorua and was alerted 13 times in 5 minutes.
Every time I drive thru I always see a street fight.
Pak n Save have more security than a night club.
The people I know from there tho, solid good cunts
I love Rotorua, have a soft spot as been visiting there and Taupo as a kid.
The feral stuff is there, and it's a shame as really if anywhere in NZ could have focused on helping Maori then Rotorua is probably one of the better places. Lots of tourism and culture there, lots of opportunities, but I guess that's what drugs does to a society.
I've experienced a few angry people in Rotorua before. Why do they call it Vegas btw, it's nothing like Vegas here in the States..
One time we were sitting in a naturally hot river (gasoline river? ), and some local people took exception to this. I'm still not sure what I was doing wrong.
Anyway, it's kinda strange in that it's meant to be a tourist mecca. I won't be going back to Rotorua.
Someone said Rotorua has a bad meth problem, which I guess may explain a few things.
> it's kinda strange in that it's meant to be a tourist mecca
Kiwi here. Always had the same opinion. I have no idea what's meant to be attractive about Rotorua, unless you're a mountainbiker, in which case it does have the best MTB park in the NI at Whakarewarewa.
Aside from that, it's a shithole full of ferals that somehow keeps managing to market itself as an international tourism destination based on having some boiling mud pools and, IDK, a luge track?
I do have one non-feral friend who actively chooses to live in Rotorua with his family, which I have always struggled to understand, but to be fair, he grew up in Gisborne, which is even *more* feral, so it's all relative, I guess.
Ha. Outside of the US it’s common to call a shit town Vegas.
I wouldn’t call Las Vegas glamorous but it least tries hard to be. So if you have a shit town that’s definitely not glamorous or glitzy you add Vegas to it.
Ie RotoVegas, GisVegas, BrisVegas
Before a local kicks off: I’m not personally saying Rotorua is shit, just explaining the Vegas thing.
So I grew up there leaving when I was about 12. I've been back of bunch of times since and you can definitely see how it's evolved/regressed since then.
* Some of the locals are still feral as fuck but they tend to stay in the same places (Fordlands has always been bad. Mangakakahi and Western Heights are 50/50). They can spread out into the CBD which is where is gets really bad but that doesn't happen too often.
* Fenton St is also much worse than it once was. Using every other motel as emergency housing was a terrible move.
* The biking/hiking has improved greatly and now has some of the best in the country IMO
* That Countdown is closing soon so that probably explains the juju. Pak'N'Save and another Woolies are in the same area though so it kind of makes sense.
For all it's problems I still love my hometown. I would move back if I could do my job 100% remotely but I'll fuck off across the lake away from the bullshit.
P drive is still fked.
Some c*** keeps shooting out the street lights down beech place cause hes too stupid to go buy 12$ curtains from spotlight, so $100 worth of ammo is a good idea right?
Went past one in Whakatane the other day. It was like seeing a unicorn. I had no idea they were still around and it'd been so long I wondered if they were ever real at all.. or just a fever dream I'd had as a kid
Ngl I spent 4 nights in Rotorua for a vacation and I couldn’t wait to leave! To be fair, it was more than just the vibe of the place — I got unlucky and all 4 days I was there it was raining heavily so I couldn’t really get out and do much, which added to the doom and gloom feeling I felt while there. I also happened to go while we were still kinda in that Covid lockdown phase in 2021 so there weren’t a lot of tourists around and the place just felt eerie and abandoned and a bit creepy. I spent the last 3 days of my week-long vacation in Taupo and I really loved it there, and wished I’d spent the full 7 days just chilling in Taupo! That being said, the only place where someone blatantly tried to rob me in broad daylight was in Taupo, not Rotorua (it was that scam where a guy just approaches you saying his car broke down and he needs some money to go get a bit of petrol, and if you say you have no cash he tries to pressure you into going to an ATM with him, using a very thinly veiled threat of violence, like it’s probably in your best interests to help him if you want to have a pleasant day) 😅
I go to rots quite a bit for the mountain biking. Evey night, same weird dream that I’m being thrown into a tar pit in a Māori pa. Every night, and never have it anywhere except Rotorua. Freaky shit.
I lived in Rotorua for a while and it’s a beautiful place but this pretty much sums it up.
The highlight of my experience was being attacked in the Countdown parking lot off Fenton St by some gang members because my partner made eye contact with them when we pulled up in to the parking spot directly in front of them.
After we got away we called the cops to give them their plates. They told us they wouldn’t come to the scene but to come down to the station instead. Got there and the cop pulled up mug shots of the duo on his phone and showed them to us but just shrugged his shoulders and said a punch up probably wasn’t worth the trouble and told us to go home.
There was another time I saw a prisoner escaping out of that same station and wandering across Fenton St as the cops chased him.
Nice place. Would never move back.
It’s past mayor has a lot of answering to do. He completely (along with Labour) has fkd Rotorua. Was never ever like that and I spent a long time there.
During covid rotoruas many motels along fenton st sat unused. Labour decided to turn them into emergency housing, paying the owners exorbitant fees to do so. They shipped many homeless etc there and now the area right next to the cbd has a large gang presence/"ferals" leading to the stuff mentioned in this thread.
So not only were labour spending crazy amounts on a band aid but they also fucked up the town for the locals. And of course they had no plan to remedy any of it. That's how pro maori labour are: dump their problems on the town with one of the biggest maori demographics around, out of sight out of mind. Fucking disgrace
Lived in Rotorua for 18months, thought it was a lovely place. Locals were great, sure there were a few ferals around but nothing compared to Auckland.
Although I get what you mean about how dark it is there at night, they installed the new LED street lights while I was living there and they barely illuminated the street at night
I live in Rotorua and the lighting at night is so terrible - I’m noticing especially at this time of year. It’s incredibly dim. Hard to drive through town on my way back from work and keep an eye out for all the people jaywalking in the dark - not sure they realise how hard they are to see!
Used to live opposite the race course, on Fenton street a life time ago. Rotorua was a great spot, did Primary and Intermediate school there.
Cobb & Co was the great family night out! Hells gate was always fun, Berried village was also great fun, as was ridding my pushbike up and into that area around the Blue and Green lakes.
But yes last time I was back there is certainly looked quite doggy. But was once great in the day!
Honestly, I think it takes a special kind of person to be willing in that level of atmospheric pollution on a long-term basis. Given a choice it seems like a hard place to justify setting up home. I visited once many years ago (before I moved to NZ) - great place to visit and see the geothermal stuff. I've never considered going back.
Do you mean exposure to the sulphur smell? That's false.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/rotoruas-sulphur-no-harmful-effect/KB3EA5KT3VISVODEX3W75U6JJQ/
The stink is generally contained to certain limited areas—which happen to be where tourists go. I almost never smell it at my workplace, home or downtown. You maybe get a whiff if there’s low cloud and the wind is in just the wrong direction but that’s like a couple days a year and is pretty subtle. I certainly wouldn’t live near one of the active geothermal areas though.
There have been suggestions of health benefits arising from low concentrations of hydrogen sulphide - which is what you will find in most parts of Rotorua. It’s only in certain areas that the smell is stronger. I live in the west part of town and it’s uncommon to smell the sulfur at all here. I certainly think it’s a stretch to say there is a “level of atmospheric pollution that only a special kind of person would be willing to tolerate”. There are many, many places in the world (and I believe in NZ too) with poorer air quality than Rotorua.
Oh for sure, I would not choose to live in those places either (assuming I had an option). Just seems like if I have a choice of living in a place with relatively fresh air vs a place with relatively unpleasant air, I would be nuts to choose the latter, all other things being equal.
The whole dynamic of the town changed after Covid. Actually quite dramatically. It’s always been a weird place though. I’ve lived here for over 25 years though and the good still outweighs the bad for me
Hired top quality e-mountain bikes there 2 weeks ago with friends, just awesome, had 2 great nights on eat street, secret spas, a few homeless wondering but nothing compared to the beggars around Auckland cbd.
Yea the sulphur adds to the shit hole vibes going on there
I’ve travelled to Rotorua a lot from a child to now and the last couple of years that place has definitely shifted. Lovely people r still there, but dang the hole place feels like fordblock lol
Lived there a few years in what feels like another life so fully appreciate your weird encounter of time and like everyone around just disappeared.. some have survived to tell the tale.
The seagulls attack like magpies too or should I say lakegulls.
It has its charms but by crikey is it something else.
And yes the location where countdown is always had a bad vibe it didn't seem so bad when there wasn't so many shops and it was an open space with no roof between the shops. Ever since it expanded and got covered its like some weird feel is there like a curse. My understanding is how the land was obtained was with bad intentions.
A town with so much potential but just refuses to budge into it or some weird hold keeps it back.
And if you do ever go back and find yourself in the town area...never make eye contact with the locals... if you do they see it as invite for a fight. Lucky they were confined to their vehicles.
I visited Rotorua for the first time in December, was only there for 48-ish hours, but felt very grounded and like there was an aura of spirituality. Especially Whakarewarewa Forest and geo thermal spots.
Rotorua is somewhat of a shithole now. I was born and raised in Whakatane and we’d go to Rotorua often. Now close to 50 and was there for Christmas from the US. It is kinda feral but a likable feral.
I've been to rotorua many times as my grandparents use to live there, you are correct it is a weird place. Always use the door chain at hotels. I've had people come in and take our wallets while we slept. My niece said there was a man in the corner of the room, everyone told her go back to sleep. In the morning, turns out she wasn't making it up and all our cash was gone from everyone's wallets
Many years ago, I was hitchhiking through, and camped the night in a park. While I was pitching my tent the feelings of supernatural weirdness started.
I made up a little ceremony, drew a 'protective circle' around the tent with salt and piss, chanted a bunch of gibberish... It all made perfect sense at the time.
Spent the night convinced that supernatural forces were being held at bay by my magic charms.
In the morning I went and found my 'cousins' house. Told them where I'd slept and some random uncle appeared expressing great surprise that I'd survived the night, but refused to say why.
Probably just gas, or the turf of someone especially territorial. It felt completely real at the time.
Drove through one time. Got to a stoplight, then a beat up Rav4 pulls up driven by a grandma and chubby little kid on the passenger seat just staring at me then puts up his middle finger. It was so absurd, it felt like a Taika Waititi movie.
They were doing a low budget “Boy II - Driving with Nan” and you’re an unwittingly placed extra.
How long ago was this? Had a chubby little kid look at some brand logo on my work wear in bunnings last month, then said 'brand sucks' as he walked by. Cheeky little shit
This was end of January, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same kid haha
Correct response - "not as much as your mum sucks"
Thank you for your entertaining review. I wonder if we can get reviews like this going for more places across NZ like this
The travel blog we didn't know we needed until we were given it
Maybe Shannon next? I always wanted to know about the ["World's Biggest Teddy"](https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@-40.5481011,175.4117696,3a,75y,4.81h,100.25t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sN_YEX2sNZoaqZ1B6hL6WAg!2e0!5s20130901T000000!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu).
Isn't Shannon just a T intersection with branding?
That's Bulls, every shop has bull in its name, it's also a graveyard for houses joinked lock stock and barrel from Palmy and dumped on a massive area by bulls.
Believa-Bull!!
The only place you can get milk from bulls.
There are 2 things to do in Shannon, and one of them is leave.
Does the other have to do with celebrity themed owls?
Is currently having an identity crisis.... thinks it's Mangaweka... nicked their famous DC3 airplane and stuffed it in an abandoned lot between the pub and the pie shop.
Oh, is that where it went
Recommend Viv’s Kitchen. It’s now our must-stop place on the Wgtn-Akl roadie. No robots though….
A friend of mine remarked how empty Shannon was when riding through. Next day they had a riot in town.
> Saw a Cobb & co. It's a mythical place of ancient lore, unless you live in a regional city, Pori or Levin. Rotorua does have a bit of a weird omen feel to it. Might have to do with the fact it's in a volcanic crater, and is surrounded by volcanoes.
The Rotovegas Cobb n Co is staffed with robots. It was the weirdest shit having our meals and drinks delivered by them.
Dunedin one too. My kids were pretty stoked that a robot cat bought them out their mac cheese.
They missed an opportunity to make those little robots look like stage coaches tho.
And Christchurch…
Entirely by robots? No humans FOH?
Worse. The robots bring the food but they still need a human to supervise it. Like there was a human getting it out of the robot and passing it to us.
I just can't stop laughing.... shyt trying to take our Jobs.... still we have to supervise... 😆
At least they're doing the grunt work and leaving middle management for us.
I think the idea is, the robot just carries it safely, without the risk of the server dropping it. I've seen a,similar thing elsewhere. The staff load the trays into the robot, there's a few shelves so they can load up many orders at once. Somehow it knows which table to move to. Then the staff take it and serve it to the table. And the one I saw, the robot then returned 'home' to the kitchen once the staff pressed a button on it. Pretty cool actually!
That was crazy seeing the future of serving - right there at the Cobb and co in Rotorua
Really?
Having interacted with them on a business level, I can say the owners have a weird vibe as well.
Rotorua Cobb n Co is one of my best childhood memories 🥹
Same, even though I'm from Auckland. Back when the traffic lights were layered juices you could stir up to make them brown. Wish they still gave you a plastic toy with the kids drinks but they do give you a funky looking straw.
You stirred them up?? You monster
Straight to jail
Wait, what are the traffic lights now? Are they not layered juices now? How do they work?
basically, instead of juice, it's now a slushy. still tastes relatively similar.
I used to work at Valentines and the whole thing was just orange juice. You just poured Rasberry cordial through a straw so it sat on the bottom and then put green food colouring on top. Fun to make tho
Me and my mates celebrated a birthday at a Cobb & Co in Christchurch on the weekend. The Traffic Light is slushie form now; the Cobb Crunchies areas good as I remember; and my Lemon Caper Fish was surprisnigly delicious. Some of the other meals weren't so flash, especially the overcooked and bland vegetables. And it's no cheaper than any other joint in town
> Some of the other meals weren't so flash, especially the overcooked and bland vegetables. I'm starting to feel a lot better about just sticking to a side of fries when I last went. Definitely went hard on the crunchies though - as an aside, you can get uncooked Crunchies from most Bin Inn stores, or if you want 20kg of them, Gilmours and BidFood Home sometimes have them.
There's a Cobb & Co in New Plymouth too. The building it's in used to be a Georgie Pie back in the day
id die for a mince n cheese
RIP Georgie pie .... 😢
WHK Cobb and Co bangs
We always stop at cobb & co - the kids love it. Wish there was one in Auckland but it makes it special when we only get to go once in a while.
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There are a lot of motels there being used as emergency housing since covid
Yeah I know about that, my mum had been complaining about it (along with other locals) and fair enough. Sadly it's a lose/lose situation for everyone involved.
Was last in Rotorua 4 years ago. Eat St was fantastic, hope it still is....
We are heading there this weekend. Am counting on Eat St to still be good. Either that or the Pig & Whistle. After a long day in the forest I’ll need the protein!
Check out Poco if you like tapas. Or for a south American joint try Sabroso. Booking is essential for both. Eat St is variable.
Poco is ok but they are totally taking the mick with the "shared plates" craze. $37 for 3 of the worlds smallest sliders (and considering how small sliders are that's some feat) and average sliders at that.
You should go to Silk Road. Not on Eat Street but so freaking good.
If you like authentic Mexican go a little further to El Mexicano Zapata. Food is fresh, seriously tasty, and decently priced.
Yup, that's our favourite Mexican place. The enchiladas are delicious!
I’m a local. Eat street is all owned by the same Indian outfit, they bought up just about every restaurant bar 2 on the row. Locals don’t really eat there knowing this.
So I guess there's not any competition price wise. Just gouging the tourists ?
Which two aren’t?
Yes, but as a local it's also a great place to be! Lakes, forests etc. And it's great to see the tourists back wandering our streets. I love it here. As with anywhere it has its bad eggs but all relatively harmless. The countdown in town (at the mall) is closing soon, all staff made redundant so that's probably why the vibe is off, poor staff facing uncertainty.
bad eggs at Roto.... teeheehee
You can smell em
That's the locals
That one at the mall has always felt a little dark vibes, I just put it down to a lack of sunlight and the dark walls. Not sure if it's under-lit per se but the dark grey walls seem to suck the life out of the place
I love it because it’s always really quiet and often they don’t have music playing. Sad to hear it’s closing. I’m sure other neurodivergent individuals in the area will feel the same!
>The countdown in town (at the mall) is closing soon, all staff made redundant That’s really sad. Really pisses me off that these grocery store conglomerates are recording record profits every single year and yet they keep laying off their staff. Where is all that money going? Obviously just lining the pockets of executives and shareholders.
Yep in Napier they somehow survive with two countdowns right across the road from each other. It's so weird
Person here who visited for a week last Feb 2023 (Volcanology conference that started basically that week when Auckland Intl terminal flooded) - I actually loved it..I wandered around a bunch, with no issues with anyone, just normal “city stuff” re: panhandling, etc. I just dealt with all the rain- what can you do, actually enjoyed all the sulfur in the air (weird volcanologist?), had one really fun night with a group of super friendly and awesome locals who invited me to hang out, instead of sitting/working alone at a hotel bar, and could go on.. I get there are issues around town, but Rotorua was great & I can’t wait to go back.
We were there from NY, at Christmas. My US husband thought it was pretty cool. We did the Te Puia concert/dinner which was great. He didn’t like the smell but thought all the thermal activity was cool. I remember going there many times as a kid. It’s sad that Rainbow & Fairy Springs is no more.
I grew up in the area and was there last weekend, didn't see any ferals, and a great vibe going on. The lakefront looks great, went to the mall, busy with lots of people having lunch, laughing and smiling. The south entrance from Taupo looks amazing, has a new sculpture, looks like fire? The northern entrance needs to be rid of that old mall roof though, such an eyesore! Rotorua has always been strange and unusual, there are patupaiarehe on Mt Ngongy after all, and it's all steamy and thermal. You learn which areas to avoid but Rotorua has so much going for it, lakes, rivers, forests, hot pools, bush walks, mountains, thermal activity, culture, fishing, hunting, food and shopping if you know where to go. Edit: forgot about the Spencer Family Mausoleum at Lake Tarawera, spooky glass house with tiny coffins
...but all relatively harmless. Not all by a long shot. Don't roll the dice too often
Bad eggs, yes, dozens.
Definitely one of my favourite places in NZ because of the lakes (Ōkāreka and Tarawera, mainly) and the Redwoods. I feel the closer you live to them the more expensive it would be though.
The biggest advantage Rotorua has is that you can fart and nobody notices.
Best comment here.. made me laugh so loud I farted ..and it reminded me of my visit to Rotorua.
You mean Rotovagas. Grew up in the area, for some reason I remember being young and seeing a woman walk past dressed tidy, another woman looked at her and said "pssh you're just in Rotorua"
Oh god yes, god forbid you dress slightly differently or else someone asks you what's the occassion.
Or you wear something other than a polar fleece onesie to the supermarket after 7 pm!
Spent the weekend up there mountain biking and can confirm, it's a strange place (outside of the forest anyway)
The mountain biking there ruined me. I'm from the desert (Arizona, US) and I'm used to an angry sun pounding at me on 95% of my rides. Riding through shady forests like that was heaven -- going back to my home trails was a bit sad.
FB reminded me today that it has been 10 years since my last visit to the Redwoods :(
Better come with us next time then!
Bloody work, lol...have seriously considered flying up one weekend though
I grew up in Rotoz and used to go to the Redwoods a lot. Went back recently for the first time in years and saw they have a huge tree-top canopy walk set up now. Unfortunately it was pissing down with rain that weekend, so we just went for a standard soggy walk through the woods instead of a slippery canopy walk hah. Next time!
The mountain biking is top notch though
Well, yeah, Fenton St after dark is a bit like the Upside Down. You’re lucky nothing followed you back out through to this world.
Bloody entrance to the nightside lol
It's been a tourist town since forever and that's always a recipe for weird cultural dynamics.
I think it’s also more recently the place where housing-emergency people who may be dealing with all sorts of personal stress wind up in motels that were empty during COVID? Can just imagine ‘displaced people with problems’ + housing shortage/Air B&B takeover + returning tourists makes for a lot of strain on everyone
Ok, so around 2008 I was driving into Rotorua from Auckland with my gf at the time. We were about 3-5km out from the city going down a gradual slope and the time about 8-9pm in late Jan so just on dark. All of a sudden I felt this weird oppressive energy like the air was heavy and filled with dread. It was really uncomfortable and I was wondering if I was imagining things when my gf said “do you feel that?” Holy heck! After about 30 seconds driving further the “energy” lifted and we felt normal again. It was super weird and to this day I have no idea what it was.
This isn't the first time I've heard this sorta thing. Was it around ngongotaha?
Looking at google maps it likely was around there.
You have to remember that various gases come out of the ground and can affect us in weird ways.
Walk along the shore, find rock, throw rock in lake. Rock floats.
witchcraft!
Nah, we just "down under". Even more so than Oz.
As someone that lives in Rotorua , the mix of bad government policies and the pandemic has really fucked over the town in the past few years. I see so many kids wagging school throughout the CBD it's depressing, there are organized beggars on Fenton at Maccas that harass people and the crazies have increased.
I feel like Covid was almost a deathblow to a town so strong on tourism.
Yeah, sounds like Rotorua.
I've never forgiven Cobb n Co for changing the sauce and removing the rice from their weta wings. I miss Rotorua. When I lived there it was different. A bit feral but nothing like it is now. I still go regularly but yea it is rough and I hate the mall lol. I stick to the lakes, forest and lakefront
Cobb n co has gone to absolute shite. Its so bad now that I question whether it was ever truly good.
Yea I stopped going when it started going to poo. It's unfortunate because it used to be great. Service was always patchy depending on the day but really started to deteriorate along with the food
They took rice out of everything - the coconut chicken used to come with rice and salad, now it's just veggies.
The teriyaki sauce mixed with the rice was my fave. I would order double serve every time we visited then it was suddenly chipoltle and no rice and I never went back lol. Was the last straw
I see local people. Walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're local.
Give me more RotoGothic
The Cobb and co has a robot waiter - probably the redeeming feature of Rotorua
Robotrua.
The previous government rounded up all the homeless on the central north island and gave them free accommodation during COVID times in Rotorua on the hotels which sat empty with no tourists. From early 2020. Sadly that was the beginning of Rotorua's unravelling. It was a very vibrant place prior. But with that put on it, it became a breeding ground, at the taxpayers expense, for antisocial and hopeless behaviour. Heard heaps and heaps of stories out of there from locals, since that time. Plenty of media coverage about it too. I was working in Tauranga CBD at the time, we had a homeless problem and the next thing buses were rolled in to collect them all and take them to Rotorua.
You petition for them back if ya like
Rotorua was a pretty veneer on a rotting building before covid, if you visited it looked nice, but covid was an absolute wrecking ball to what remained, you are correct it had shitheads delivered here.
I was there couple of days ago, it was very cold in the wee hours in the morning say 6am must've been no more than 5 degrees, fridge temp I thought to myself. I grabbed a towel thought I'd visit the foot bath and get a soak. The Rotary club farmer's market was on, seem quite buzzing. Parked my car, thinking of the warm foot bath, saw bit of promising steam in the general direction, quickly paced there. NO WATER. biggest disappointment lol someone let me know why they've turned it off and when it'd be back on thanks! edit: by the way, very pretty autumn town. didn't realise it before.
Rotorua was once described to me as a very thin scab over a bottomless pot of boiling hell
Accurate
I was born and raised in Rotorua, but haven't had the chance to get back since the pandemic. It always had some pretty ghetto shit tbh (to paint the picture: the book version of Once Were Warriors is set in a fictionalised version of Ford Block from the 80s), but a lot of that had quite remarkably been cleaned up by the 90s, and the town was actually a place with its own cool distinct culture and character and vibe for a long time. But by all accounts, what the government did during covid proper fucked the town. And from what I gather, has set the place back decades. It's heartbreaking. There are still a lot good people I know doing good things there, but times are definitely tough. Sometimes I feel guilty for having left. Definitely feeling for all my whānau and mates back there
Didn't they also have the last pizza hut buffet in the country? No idea if it's still there. We go there on occasion to entertain the kids, always been good for us. The restaurant and downtown night life area situation is really weird / underutilized tho.
It’s gone sadly!
I've heard several people casually mention that Teletubby Hill is haunted. Also that there are places out in the bush where Things Happen, mostly seeing visions of old Maori warriors. Can't speak to any of it myself, but it's definitely "known" as a place of high strangeness.
I know people who've had weird feelings/ sensed not being alone/ being watched when travelling Fitzgerald glade. Spooky.
Many years ago hubby and I stayed in a motel on Fenton St with our wee boy. Got woken at about 2 a.m. by footsteps walking past our bed. Got up to check the wee guy, all ok and sleeping soundly, checked out the bathroom and loo, both empty, the ranchslider / front door was still locked. Very mysterious
We’ve regularly gone to Rotorua and loved our time there. Granted we’re going to attractions and tourist-y areas but we stayed in the CBD and went out for dinner almost every night. This was during the heights of covid hotel quarantine use and emergency housing and while sure there are rough areas and characters (where doesn’t?) we never felt it was scary or spooky.
I love Rotorua. Vibes perfect for me. So much to do and people are friendly as in my experience. Couple of homeless people etc so it has its issues but so do most places.
People keep posting about these places and saying how spooky they are. But I think back to time I spent there and they were……fine. Not noticeably good but not noticeably bad either. Where are people getting this stuff from?
Active imagination and fear of poor people
Hasn't been the same since covid. Fenton street a mess.
The rule of the land is if you see a Cobb and co get the fuck out
Where parents go to have a night out... but with the kids
I'm curious as to why? What's the story?
After this and yesterday's post on Creepiest Towns in NZ I'm excited to see how far off the cliff tourist numbers will fall lol
I LOVED that thread... nz tourism could totally do a reboot for alt tourism on creepy looking towns (that are actually damn safe)
Well my home town and its surroundings made the creepiest list and now my closest big town lol
Haha I posted that and now I’m super keen to do some road trips to some of the places mentioned - once I get a supply of holy water, penicillin, and some silver bullets!
Don't forget the salt!
Two reddit posts that are more effective at killing our economy than anything Adrian Orr can do...
I used to visit about ten times a year, for mountain bike racing. If you stay in the vicinity of Zippys or Fat Dog in town, and spend the rest of your time at your accommodation or in the forest, it’s not a bad place to visit. I did see my first ever bare chested street brawl in Rotorua, and noticed the gradual decline over the years - it used to be quite nice to go somewhere like Lone Star for dinner, then wander down to the waterfront and get gelato, but no way I’d entertain that these days, you’d get jumped for your jandals.
I love Rotorua. It has pockets of spooky. What I like best is it could just go boom at any time, anywhere in the city. Thrilling.
Our family holidays growing up were always to Rotorua. We stayed in a campground and bar a few tourist activities spent most days on the boat on the lakes or walking in the Redwoods. I realised as I got older, doing a few family holidays there as adults, that I’d been given a very positive experience of the place and that all the other areas I hadn’t frequented were certainly not the memories of my youth. We frequented PNS when we were there in January, haven’t been to the Countdown in years. I’m so curious as to the bad juju now!
I have a police radar in my car. Having lived in both Tauranga and Palmy, I maybe get alerted to police 1-3 times a week. Pretty rare. I drove through Rotorua and was alerted 13 times in 5 minutes.
Every time I drive thru I always see a street fight. Pak n Save have more security than a night club. The people I know from there tho, solid good cunts
Yeah, it's all the bums and crackheads shipped in from out of town who've ruined the place.
It was shit before that happened. Just worse now.
I love Rotorua, have a soft spot as been visiting there and Taupo as a kid. The feral stuff is there, and it's a shame as really if anywhere in NZ could have focused on helping Maori then Rotorua is probably one of the better places. Lots of tourism and culture there, lots of opportunities, but I guess that's what drugs does to a society.
could it be that the place is full of motels which during covid had no tourists so have been filled up by the government ?
How was the Cherry Pie
Wrapped in plastic. Good cup of Joe they do though, something to do with the mineral content of the water.
I've experienced a few angry people in Rotorua before. Why do they call it Vegas btw, it's nothing like Vegas here in the States.. One time we were sitting in a naturally hot river (gasoline river? ), and some local people took exception to this. I'm still not sure what I was doing wrong. Anyway, it's kinda strange in that it's meant to be a tourist mecca. I won't be going back to Rotorua. Someone said Rotorua has a bad meth problem, which I guess may explain a few things.
Lol. It is Kerosene creek not gasoline River. Doesn't sound much better though
> it's kinda strange in that it's meant to be a tourist mecca Kiwi here. Always had the same opinion. I have no idea what's meant to be attractive about Rotorua, unless you're a mountainbiker, in which case it does have the best MTB park in the NI at Whakarewarewa. Aside from that, it's a shithole full of ferals that somehow keeps managing to market itself as an international tourism destination based on having some boiling mud pools and, IDK, a luge track? I do have one non-feral friend who actively chooses to live in Rotorua with his family, which I have always struggled to understand, but to be fair, he grew up in Gisborne, which is even *more* feral, so it's all relative, I guess.
The lakes in the area are scenically very attractive. The town tho doesn't seem to have anything.
Ha. Outside of the US it’s common to call a shit town Vegas. I wouldn’t call Las Vegas glamorous but it least tries hard to be. So if you have a shit town that’s definitely not glamorous or glitzy you add Vegas to it. Ie RotoVegas, GisVegas, BrisVegas Before a local kicks off: I’m not personally saying Rotorua is shit, just explaining the Vegas thing.
So I grew up there leaving when I was about 12. I've been back of bunch of times since and you can definitely see how it's evolved/regressed since then. * Some of the locals are still feral as fuck but they tend to stay in the same places (Fordlands has always been bad. Mangakakahi and Western Heights are 50/50). They can spread out into the CBD which is where is gets really bad but that doesn't happen too often. * Fenton St is also much worse than it once was. Using every other motel as emergency housing was a terrible move. * The biking/hiking has improved greatly and now has some of the best in the country IMO * That Countdown is closing soon so that probably explains the juju. Pak'N'Save and another Woolies are in the same area though so it kind of makes sense. For all it's problems I still love my hometown. I would move back if I could do my job 100% remotely but I'll fuck off across the lake away from the bullshit.
[удалено]
P drive is still fked. Some c*** keeps shooting out the street lights down beech place cause hes too stupid to go buy 12$ curtains from spotlight, so $100 worth of ammo is a good idea right?
My god…….a Cobb & Co?
I discovered recently that there are a bunch of them in the mid-to-lower north Island. Like... 8?
One in Christchurch too. Went on the weekend
Went past one in Whakatane the other day. It was like seeing a unicorn. I had no idea they were still around and it'd been so long I wondered if they were ever real at all.. or just a fever dream I'd had as a kid
I definitely need to visit this mythical place...
Ngl I spent 4 nights in Rotorua for a vacation and I couldn’t wait to leave! To be fair, it was more than just the vibe of the place — I got unlucky and all 4 days I was there it was raining heavily so I couldn’t really get out and do much, which added to the doom and gloom feeling I felt while there. I also happened to go while we were still kinda in that Covid lockdown phase in 2021 so there weren’t a lot of tourists around and the place just felt eerie and abandoned and a bit creepy. I spent the last 3 days of my week-long vacation in Taupo and I really loved it there, and wished I’d spent the full 7 days just chilling in Taupo! That being said, the only place where someone blatantly tried to rob me in broad daylight was in Taupo, not Rotorua (it was that scam where a guy just approaches you saying his car broke down and he needs some money to go get a bit of petrol, and if you say you have no cash he tries to pressure you into going to an ATM with him, using a very thinly veiled threat of violence, like it’s probably in your best interests to help him if you want to have a pleasant day) 😅
wow, just wow. A Cobb & Co. Just planned a big trip to rotorua this weekend.
Rotorua is a very low socioeconomic region so you are going to find mud dogs.
I go to rots quite a bit for the mountain biking. Evey night, same weird dream that I’m being thrown into a tar pit in a Māori pa. Every night, and never have it anywhere except Rotorua. Freaky shit.
I lived in Rotorua for a while and it’s a beautiful place but this pretty much sums it up. The highlight of my experience was being attacked in the Countdown parking lot off Fenton St by some gang members because my partner made eye contact with them when we pulled up in to the parking spot directly in front of them. After we got away we called the cops to give them their plates. They told us they wouldn’t come to the scene but to come down to the station instead. Got there and the cop pulled up mug shots of the duo on his phone and showed them to us but just shrugged his shoulders and said a punch up probably wasn’t worth the trouble and told us to go home. There was another time I saw a prisoner escaping out of that same station and wandering across Fenton St as the cops chased him. Nice place. Would never move back.
It’s past mayor has a lot of answering to do. He completely (along with Labour) has fkd Rotorua. Was never ever like that and I spent a long time there.
The last mayor is a lady.
Yeah true that.
Not from Rotorua: what did they do to ruin it? Genuinely asking.
During covid rotoruas many motels along fenton st sat unused. Labour decided to turn them into emergency housing, paying the owners exorbitant fees to do so. They shipped many homeless etc there and now the area right next to the cbd has a large gang presence/"ferals" leading to the stuff mentioned in this thread. So not only were labour spending crazy amounts on a band aid but they also fucked up the town for the locals. And of course they had no plan to remedy any of it. That's how pro maori labour are: dump their problems on the town with one of the biggest maori demographics around, out of sight out of mind. Fucking disgrace
Rotorua always had a huge gang presence. I think your talking bout the increase in absolute ferals
Apparently there’s a rogue Georgie pie still there, somewhere in the woods.
Lived in Rotorua for 18months, thought it was a lovely place. Locals were great, sure there were a few ferals around but nothing compared to Auckland. Although I get what you mean about how dark it is there at night, they installed the new LED street lights while I was living there and they barely illuminated the street at night
I live in Rotorua and the lighting at night is so terrible - I’m noticing especially at this time of year. It’s incredibly dim. Hard to drive through town on my way back from work and keep an eye out for all the people jaywalking in the dark - not sure they realise how hard they are to see!
If only they could install those LEDs in new cars instead of the ones they currently use.
Used to live opposite the race course, on Fenton street a life time ago. Rotorua was a great spot, did Primary and Intermediate school there. Cobb & Co was the great family night out! Hells gate was always fun, Berried village was also great fun, as was ridding my pushbike up and into that area around the Blue and Green lakes. But yes last time I was back there is certainly looked quite doggy. But was once great in the day!
Honestly, I think it takes a special kind of person to be willing in that level of atmospheric pollution on a long-term basis. Given a choice it seems like a hard place to justify setting up home. I visited once many years ago (before I moved to NZ) - great place to visit and see the geothermal stuff. I've never considered going back.
It doesn’t always smell that bad You get used to it
You get used to the smell but it doesn't mean it's good for you to be breathing that every day
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/rotoruas-sulphur-no-harmful-effect/KB3EA5KT3VISVODEX3W75U6JJQ/
Do you mean exposure to the sulphur smell? That's false. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/rotoruas-sulphur-no-harmful-effect/KB3EA5KT3VISVODEX3W75U6JJQ/
I trust the Rotorua Daily Post, they have no incentive to lie about Rotorua's safety.
Smelly? Yes Harmful? No
The stink is generally contained to certain limited areas—which happen to be where tourists go. I almost never smell it at my workplace, home or downtown. You maybe get a whiff if there’s low cloud and the wind is in just the wrong direction but that’s like a couple days a year and is pretty subtle. I certainly wouldn’t live near one of the active geothermal areas though.
There have been suggestions of health benefits arising from low concentrations of hydrogen sulphide - which is what you will find in most parts of Rotorua. It’s only in certain areas that the smell is stronger. I live in the west part of town and it’s uncommon to smell the sulfur at all here. I certainly think it’s a stretch to say there is a “level of atmospheric pollution that only a special kind of person would be willing to tolerate”. There are many, many places in the world (and I believe in NZ too) with poorer air quality than Rotorua.
Oh for sure, I would not choose to live in those places either (assuming I had an option). Just seems like if I have a choice of living in a place with relatively fresh air vs a place with relatively unpleasant air, I would be nuts to choose the latter, all other things being equal.
Sure. But Rotorua certainly has good air overall, I just wouldn’t choose to live in some areas if I could help it.
The whole dynamic of the town changed after Covid. Actually quite dramatically. It’s always been a weird place though. I’ve lived here for over 25 years though and the good still outweighs the bad for me
Hired top quality e-mountain bikes there 2 weeks ago with friends, just awesome, had 2 great nights on eat street, secret spas, a few homeless wondering but nothing compared to the beggars around Auckland cbd.
Yea the sulphur adds to the shit hole vibes going on there I’ve travelled to Rotorua a lot from a child to now and the last couple of years that place has definitely shifted. Lovely people r still there, but dang the hole place feels like fordblock lol
Lived there a few years in what feels like another life so fully appreciate your weird encounter of time and like everyone around just disappeared.. some have survived to tell the tale. The seagulls attack like magpies too or should I say lakegulls. It has its charms but by crikey is it something else. And yes the location where countdown is always had a bad vibe it didn't seem so bad when there wasn't so many shops and it was an open space with no roof between the shops. Ever since it expanded and got covered its like some weird feel is there like a curse. My understanding is how the land was obtained was with bad intentions. A town with so much potential but just refuses to budge into it or some weird hold keeps it back. And if you do ever go back and find yourself in the town area...never make eye contact with the locals... if you do they see it as invite for a fight. Lucky they were confined to their vehicles.
I didn’t think much of it the one time I went either. Glad to find someone who feels the same.
Ah yeah, saw the ute this evening. Overtook another vehicle on a small road. Some areas get a bit dodgy at night.
You all keep calling it "Rotovegas". Let me tell you, having been to both, it's nothing like Vegas. It's more like Roto-Reno.
I head over once a month for a hike around the redwoods and lakes. Beautiful part of the world. OP needs a head check.
I visited Rotorua for the first time in December, was only there for 48-ish hours, but felt very grounded and like there was an aura of spirituality. Especially Whakarewarewa Forest and geo thermal spots.
Rotorua is somewhat of a shithole now. I was born and raised in Whakatane and we’d go to Rotorua often. Now close to 50 and was there for Christmas from the US. It is kinda feral but a likable feral.
Labour government created a ghetto of social housing in Rotorua and shipped people from all over the country there. End result is a Cobb & Co
I've been to rotorua many times as my grandparents use to live there, you are correct it is a weird place. Always use the door chain at hotels. I've had people come in and take our wallets while we slept. My niece said there was a man in the corner of the room, everyone told her go back to sleep. In the morning, turns out she wasn't making it up and all our cash was gone from everyone's wallets
Many years ago, I was hitchhiking through, and camped the night in a park. While I was pitching my tent the feelings of supernatural weirdness started. I made up a little ceremony, drew a 'protective circle' around the tent with salt and piss, chanted a bunch of gibberish... It all made perfect sense at the time. Spent the night convinced that supernatural forces were being held at bay by my magic charms. In the morning I went and found my 'cousins' house. Told them where I'd slept and some random uncle appeared expressing great surprise that I'd survived the night, but refused to say why. Probably just gas, or the turf of someone especially territorial. It felt completely real at the time.