The strangest place in New Zealand is surely Rotorua, a city near the centre of the North Island.Here the air smells like eggs, and hot water explodes out of the ground. You can walk beside lakesof hot water of extraordinary colours, and there are pools of natural hot water where you can swim.Near Rotorua, steam is used to make electricity. Not far away at Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula you can find hot water coming upthrough the sand next to the cold sea. Visitors like to dig in the sand and make themselves a poolof hot water to lie in. About 150 kilometres west of Rotorua are the Waitomo Caves. These enormous caves were made by ariver. The best part of a visit is a journey along the river in a boat; you travel silently throughthe darkness of the caves until suddenly you see thousands of little stars above you. In fact thesestars are lights; they belong to very small animals, like flies, which live on the roof of the cave. In 1931 an earthquake destroyed much of the city of Napier, on the east coast of the North Island.When the new city was built, it was in the Art Deco style that was popular at the time. Now thereare only two places in the world where you can see a lot of Art Deco buildings – Napier, and SouthBeach in Florida, USA. Some of Napier’s Art Deco buildings were knocked down in the 1960s and1970s, but many of them are still there, and a lot of visitors come to Napier to see them. 新西蘭最奇特的地方當屬羅托魯阿,它是靠近北島中央的一座城市。這裡的空氣聞起來像雞蛋的氣味,熱水從地底下噴湧而出,你可以在熱氣騰騰、顏色奇特的湖泊的岸邊走走,或者在天然形成的溫泉池裡遊泳。在靠近羅托魯阿的地方,蒸汽被用來發電。 離羅托魯阿不遠的科羅曼德爾半島上有熱水沙灘。在這裡,你能看到熱水從沙灘裡汨汨而出,而旁邊是冰冷的大海。遊客們喜歡在沙灘上挖出一個自制小溫泉池,等裡面流滿熱水後躺進去。 羅托魯阿以西大約150千米處是懷托莫溶洞,這些巨大的溶洞由一條河侵蝕而成。參觀溶洞最美妙的地方在於河上泛舟,你乘著船靜靜地駛過漆黑的溶洞,直到看見上方突然出現點點繁星。其實,這些"星星"是一些棲息於溶洞頂部的螢火蟲之類的極小動物發出的光。 內皮爾是北島東海岸的一座城市,在1931年的一場地震中大面積損毀。人們重建這座城市時,采用了當時流行的裝飾派藝術風格。現在全世界隻有兩個地方能看到大量裝飾派藝術風格的建築,一個是內皮爾,還有一個是美國佛羅裡達州的南海灘。在20世紀60年代和70年代,內皮爾有一些裝飾派藝術風格的建築被拆毀,但許多得以留存至今,吸引了大批遊客前來參觀。