Rotorua is a geothermal tourist site and has loads of fun things to do. (It also stinks of rotten eggs due to the Hydrogen Sulphide being released) First off we went on the luge where you fly down a hill on a cart.
After the Luge we went to Hell's Gate which is a geothermal park with mud paths and spas. It's called Hell's Gate, in English, due to George Bernard Shaw visiting and remarking that it looks like where his theologian friends keep promising he'll end up. So droll. He impressed the local Maoris so much on his 1 week visit that they okayed the naming. The mud paths where lovely but we stank of sulphur from the sulphur spa. We were so relaxed after our baths that we dozed off as soon as we got home. That night we went to see the Mitai Maori tribe's concert and ate some delicious hangi and went a walk in the dark forest to see glow worms. The Mitai put on a great show for us and were really friendly. They taught us some dances and phrases their performance of their Hakka which was class. The hangi was delicious, the food had an earthy taste (unsurprising with being cooked in the ground) that you don't with gas BBQ's the Aussies favour.
On Tuesday we headed up to Wai-O-Tapu which is a thermal 'wonderland' where we saw loads of different coloured pools, lakes and craters from the various chemicals lying around. It also had loads of boiling mud pools. The champagne pool was particularly cool with its reddish edge (iron oxide)and the Devil's Bath was florescent green (colloidal sulphur/ferrous salts). Amazing! We also saw Lady Knox Geyser which erupts daily and can reach heights of up to 20 metres.
In the afternoon we had planned to do another park called Waimangu volcanic valley. We were worried that it would be the same as Wai-O-Tapu and Hell's Gate and we were going to cancel and do more luging or look for hobbits but we were so glad that we didn't! Waimangu was more of a hiking park and the scenery was spectacular! We have never seen anything like it. It is the newest geothermal system in the world and was created as a direct result of a huge volcanic eruption in 1886. The Frying Pan Lake is the largest hot water lake in the world and the Inferno Crater was an incredible colour of blue from sulphuric acid in the rocks with a pH of 2.1. It was one of the best parks that we have been to and is up there with Yosemite Valley in California.
To DAVID'S DAD: You were too quick to leave comments before we had even wrote the blog. We need to act faster!
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dougalbaa
3 comments:
I know someone who would love all that mud! How's Dougs getting on in the land of New Zealand lamb? Can't keep up with all these pics. Good job I'm on my holidays. Keep them coming!
Sorry I was a bit previous with my last comments. I had been way behind for so long that now I'm a bit too eager to keep up to date.
The volcanic stuff is fantastic. Some amazing colours. David looks soooo impressed by the geothermal power station.
Good for you seeing the Hakka as I did not see it in Dublin when New Zeland played Ireland at Rugby and that was what I wanted to see but Dave's Dad spent too long in the pub.
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