Flickr picture - Roturua mud pool

Here is the picture link from Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fwillemburg/1870386766/

I wish I could have taken as good a photo when I visited the Maori village. It was so interesting to hear about another culture. They have a mud pool near their Anglican Church. They have to lower buckets to collect the mud which is boiling hot (and a bit smelly). Once it cools, they can use it for all sorts of skin aliments as it is absorbed into the skin rather than sit on top of it.

Our guide warned us that no one should climb over the fence as you do not want to fall into the pool. One, they will have to rescue you. Two, you will get very serious burns. Three, the mud will cling to you and is so hot that you will begin to cook from the inside. That really didn't sound pleasant at all.

All over the village are mud or water pools of various sizes. Many you can not enter. The mud and the water have "healing" minerals in them. The people of the village bathe regularly in cooled communal bathing pools. The smell of sulfur hangs everywhere.