Post from Tim:
Rotorua is the most heavly touristed city in the north island of New Zealand. No doubt, it also the smelliest.
The smell is caused by the incredible thermal activity in the area. You notice it while taking a walk though Kuirau Park, where pools of boiling mud belch sulphury steam. You notice it in the Polynesian Spa, where you bathe in pools of sulphury "health-giving" waters. You even notice it in your hotel's lobby. But you get used to the smell, and eventually you start to find it comforting.
So I spent the day enjoying the smells of Rotorua. But in the evening, I decided to check out another less touristed smelly attraction - the final round of the New Zealand Darts Championship.
I knew I had arrived to the correct location when I heard the boisterous screaming and smelled the bar-like smokey atmosphere. Yesterday, the sports complex housed a quiet basketball court. Today, the auditorium pulsed with the energy of a bowling alley on league night. Large metal ashtrays filled with cigarette butts lay strewn about. A row of white partitions parallelled the filled grandstand. Each partition sported a carefully lit dartboard, a scribbled on chalkboard, a uniformed scorekeeper, and four burley competitors.
The audience seemed to know the competitors well. I'm quite sure I was the only spectator who wasn't dating or related to someone throwing darts. A few of the players wore jackets or shirts with their team logo on the back, many of them had tattoos, and most of them possessed a pendulous beer gut. I wouldn't be tempted to call these people athletes, but they were certainly skilled with darts.
I watched several teams play the game "501" against each other. The object of this game is to get up to exactly 501 points - fairly simple. For those of you who don't play darts, a dart board is segmented into 20 pie shapes with points associated with each "piece". The highest number is 20 which sits on the top of the board. The board also has 2 rings circling the pie, which when hit, double or triple the points of each shot.
Players constantly shot for the triple ring of the 20 point. This is rounded area on the board less than an inch long and as wide a pencil. Most of the players were able to hit 2 triple 20's with each turn, and I saw several players hit only triples. You know these competitors are good when the shot to see who goes first becomes a contest to see who can shoot a better bulls-eye!
I watched for a while, until the natural smell of the sulphur springs outside seemed a good trade for the smokey indoors.
The smell is caused by the incredible thermal activity in the area. You notice it while taking a walk though Kuirau Park, where pools of boiling mud belch sulphury steam. You notice it in the Polynesian Spa, where you bathe in pools of sulphury "health-giving" waters. You even notice it in your hotel's lobby. But you get used to the smell, and eventually you start to find it comforting.
So I spent the day enjoying the smells of Rotorua. But in the evening, I decided to check out another less touristed smelly attraction - the final round of the New Zealand Darts Championship.
I knew I had arrived to the correct location when I heard the boisterous screaming and smelled the bar-like smokey atmosphere. Yesterday, the sports complex housed a quiet basketball court. Today, the auditorium pulsed with the energy of a bowling alley on league night. Large metal ashtrays filled with cigarette butts lay strewn about. A row of white partitions parallelled the filled grandstand. Each partition sported a carefully lit dartboard, a scribbled on chalkboard, a uniformed scorekeeper, and four burley competitors.
The audience seemed to know the competitors well. I'm quite sure I was the only spectator who wasn't dating or related to someone throwing darts. A few of the players wore jackets or shirts with their team logo on the back, many of them had tattoos, and most of them possessed a pendulous beer gut. I wouldn't be tempted to call these people athletes, but they were certainly skilled with darts.
I watched several teams play the game "501" against each other. The object of this game is to get up to exactly 501 points - fairly simple. For those of you who don't play darts, a dart board is segmented into 20 pie shapes with points associated with each "piece". The highest number is 20 which sits on the top of the board. The board also has 2 rings circling the pie, which when hit, double or triple the points of each shot.
Players constantly shot for the triple ring of the 20 point. This is rounded area on the board less than an inch long and as wide a pencil. Most of the players were able to hit 2 triple 20's with each turn, and I saw several players hit only triples. You know these competitors are good when the shot to see who goes first becomes a contest to see who can shoot a better bulls-eye!
I watched for a while, until the natural smell of the sulphur springs outside seemed a good trade for the smokey indoors.
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