Wai-O-Tapu.....part 2

So Little Lad, Little Miss, Grandpa and Grandma G felt their tummies calling for ice cream......so they high-tailed it back to the Visitors' Centre cafe.....while Big Lad, Big Miss and myself completed the circuit......at the highest point of the trail we were greeted with this view.....

.....and then descended down onto the flats themselves.....where we spotted a family of pied stilts.....

.....can you see the little one in the middle of the picture.....lazily looking here and there for morish morsels to eat.....

The colours splashed all around were so bright and vivid.....

......as if someone had taken a tube of paint and just squirted and dabbed at random......

Sulphur Cave

.....or beautifully opaque and milky......like this serene looking "Oyster Pool"......

Oyster Pool

.....but don't be fooled by the serenity though.....there were warnings everywhere not to step off the boardwalk because the temperatures of the pools and surrounding mud could easily be 100℃.....even though they looked so innocent.....

At the base of this rock formation, bubbling out of one of the little pools, was the Wai-O-Tapu Geyser......

.....we could see the preceding bubbles erupt on the surface.....so we waited and watched.....walked on.....and wandered back......but alas, it was not playing fair.....and did not blast a vast jet of water into the air for our entertainment and enjoyment......

After walking around the far edge of the flats, we finally rounded a corner and were met by the end of the pathway and a view to take our breaths away......Lake Ngakoro......with Mt Tauhara ......a dormant volcano which reaches 1088m above sea level....and whose name, according to Maori legend means alone or isolated......in the far distance......

Lake Ngakoro & Mt Tauhara

The landscape was so diverse.....one minute we were looking out upon wide open flats.....the next we were looking down huge great chasms and vents.....

Inferno Crater

....like the Inferno Crater.......

.....and the Birds Nest Crater.......

....or upon lakes of every tint and hue.....like this one......

.....which wouldn't look out of place bubbling and boiling away in a witch's cauldron.....

...or this two-toned pool.....

Wai-O-Tapu......Sacred Waters....was certainly a colourful and stunning geothermal wonderland to explore......

Having drained our water bottles......Big Lad, Big Miss and myself arrived back at the Visitor Centre hot and parched.......and most definitely looking forward to a refreshing drink and a delightfully cooling ice cream......but we were out of time.......we were hurriedly ushered into the minivan and driven off to our motel to get showered and changed in time to be collected for our Tamaki Maori Village experience.....an evening of cultural enlightenment and dinner.

-xxx-