Impromptu picnic....

So yesterday, almost....but not quite.....on the spur of the moment, I decided to take the Angels for a picnic dinner.....I quickly made some most scrumptious choc chip cookies from Sarah's recipe over at abeachcottage......she has a lovely blog, with such stunning photos.....but I digress....I didn't have any choc chips.....so I improvised with some Whittakers peanut chocolate from NZ that was open and languishing uneaten in my bedroom.....how was that I wonder.....languishing uneaten, when it is simply the most deelish chocolate......trying to keep the pounds off, that's how..... anyway, I digress again.....the peanut chocolate was an absolute success.....a tasty twist for choc chip cookies.

After the cookies, I hurriedly whipped up some pesto pastry pinwheels.....threw some carrot and cucumber sticks into a jam jar.....grabbed a handful of cherry tomatoes......bottled some strawberry cordial.....flung everything into a French couffin shopping basket.....along with some cups and napkins......and bundled everything and everyone into the car.....I dashed into the local chippy for a portion of chips on route.....they always taste scrummy alfresco......then zippity zipped down to the local ponds for our said impromptu picnic dinner......

I didn't plan on being there too long.....Mrs Sunshine and Mr Cloud had been battling it out all day to see who would be victorious.....but I set off with a hopeful heart and a quick prayer to the angels for a window of opportunity before the heavens opened......we found a relatively sheltered spot......a brisk breeze was rustling the leaves to be sure......where we could easily enjoy casting our view upon the pond......and settled ourselves down directly beneath the cusp of a storm.....Mrs Sunshine bathed us in the last of her rays.....while the hugest, heaviest, blackest Mr Cloud threaten to dump torrential rain on us at any moment.......

......but despite feeling slightly chilly, we were thankful for that brisk breeze, as it held Mr Cloud at bay while we enjoyed our impromptu picnic.......

....it was not the best of days to decide to potter off for a pond picnic....but in true British style, we did not let the weather get the better of us.....it was just nice to be outside enjoying nature and the elements.....the pastry pinwheels and cookies went down such a treat, they were all gone before I realised I didn't even get a chance for a quick piccie....such was the rush of getting ready....

Little Lad & Little Miss

With full tummies, Mr Cloud finally victorious over Mrs Sunshine, and the threat of Mr Cloud opening his flood gates just a little too close for comfort, we packed up and ambled back to the car.....halfway home the rain started to fall.....as we pulled up outside home, the gentle pitter patter of the first raindrops suddenly became deafening as it pelted the car.....we were home safe and dry....but stranded inside the car for almost five minutes while we watched the gutters overflow, unable to take the sheer volume of such a sudden and heavy deluge......but Big Lad is impatient and declared he was going to wait no longer.....he was going to brave the downpour and fetch an umbrella to ferry everyone inside......as soon as our knight with an umbrella returned, the rain eased as suddenly as it had started.....and everyone made it inside as dry as a bone.....

.....thankfully the angels up above heard my prayers and allowed us that window of opportunity to enjoy our impromptu pond picnic.....my Angels and I had a delightful dinner dining out.

-xxx-

NZ Treasures.....

Treasures bought.....

Treasured family......

Treasures of the sea.....

Landscapes and flora to treasure....

Fauna to treasure.......

Geothermal landscapes to treasure.....

New Zealand treasures.....

A montage of New Zealand memories to treasure forever.

-xxx-

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-

Wai-O-Tapu......part 1......

Our next stop on our journey up the North Island was Wai-O-Tapu Scenic Reserve......about half way between Taupo and Rotorua......the most amazingly weird and colourful landscape......it was very easy to imagine we'd been abducted by aliens and deposited on their planet.....

All the craters and natural geothermal formations had been named......often with some reference to the inferno of the underworld......from whence the devil resides.....

The yellow colouring comes from a sulphur vent blowing up from inside the earth.......Little Lad and Little Miss found the rotten egg smell of the sulphur rather repugnant......

Devil's Home

The Devil's Ink Pots

The Devil's Inkpots

The Artist's Palette is like just that.....a seemingly flatish, artist's palette shape with a whole range of colours as if an artist had just plopped his paints into little puddles ready to paint the landscape.......

Artist's Palette

Artist's Palette - left

Artist's Palette - right

Part of the Artist's Palette is the Champagne Pool.....so called because of the millions of tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide.....can you see them.....constantly bubbling up to the surface from a steep sided crater 62m deep inside the Earth, formed by a hydro-thermal eruption 700 years ago......

Champagne Pool

And that isn't mist....or smoke......it's steam......rising from the water of the pool which enters through a deep conduit at about 230℃ and cools within the pool to about 74℃.....

Champagne Pool

The vivid orange colour comes from the presence of arsenic and antimony sulphur compounds rich in minerals including gold and silver......

Champagne Pool

On the other side of the boardwalk from the Artist's Palette, looking all the world like a salt flat is the Primrose Terrace.......which is formed from the water of the Champagne Pool......

Primrose Terrace

As we walked around this amazingly weird and wonderful thermal wonderland.....up gentle hills that we didn't really realise we were going up......and down into narrow valleys.....we also wandered through ancient kanuka and manuka forests.....

and forests of pinus radiata.......

which gave us a brief welcome respite from the hot sun bearing down on us......which, combined with the heat rising from the depths of the Earth......created a veritable heat trap......

and hanging high above us in the pine forests were huge bundles of foliage......for what reason, we knew not why.....but they looked like giant Christmas baubles suspended for the festive season.....

At this point Little Lad and Little Miss had had enough of the "stinky eggy smell" that gently pervaded the air......and Grandpa's worn out knee was really aching.....so with Grandma G they left Big Lad, Big Miss and myself to continue the bigger loop, while they took the shorter loop back to the beginning.....to eat ice cream......and await for our return......

-xxx-

Taupo, Part 2.......

After we'd marvelled at Craters of the Moon, we zipped over to the lookout to be wowed by the majesty of Huka Falls......the most visited natural attraction in NZ.....on the Waikato River ......which drains Lake Taupo.....which itself is the largest freshwater lake in all of Australasia. The Waikato River is normally 100m wide, but at the falls is squeezed through a 20 metre wide gorge....a hard volcanic ledge.......and over a 20m drop.....forming a visual fest of powerful falls and rapids.......every second up to 220,000 litres of water gushes through the gorge and shoots out over the cliff face.......it bursts out of its rapids over 8 metres beyond into a deep circular basin to create a beautiful blue/green pool....the name Huka is the Maori word for 'foam'........and it really does look like frothy foam......

Huka Falls, NZ

Huka Falls, NZ

Huka Falls......Looking Upstream

Such an amazing natural wonder!

Next we stopped by the Honey Hive......a great little place where you can view bees going about their bee business in a glass hive, taste a variety of different honeys, purchase any manner of products made with honey and/or bee products, and watch an informative little video which explains almost everything there is to know about the humble honey bee.....it was fascinating .....and even the Angels were engrossed watching the video.

After that we popped down the road to the Volcanic Activity Centre.......a hands-on interactive educational centre that makes learning about the earths volcanic forces easy and fun.....we learnt about the Taupo Volcanic Zone which stretches from the magnificent volcanoes of the Tongariro National Park, through Rotorua....an active geothermal area....to New Zealand’s most active volcano White Island.....this area is considered one of the most active geothermal and volcanic areas in the world today and covers an area of 19,635km.....it was another fascinating.....and important.....stop for the Angels where they learnt about a hugely important facet of New Zealand's past and present composition and formation.......

Volcanic Activity Centre

And our last stop in the Taupo area was to see where steam is harvested from geothermal fluid to generate electricity.......

Wairakei Geothermal Power Generation

This is an incredible and absolutely amazing way of generating electricity......this "power station" is hidden in a secluded, uninhabited valley.....and uses only the earth's natural resources......

To try to get an idea of just how much heat.....energy.....is sitting just below and/or bubbling up from the earth's centre all around this area......this seemingly innocent white flow of mist.....

Geothermal Stream

is actually a flowing stream of boiling water......

Geothermal Stream

It is water like this that is processed through all the miles of piping here.....to harvest the steam.....to generate electricity.....quite simply amazing!!!

-xx-