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.

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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......

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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!!!

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Taupo......

Our second day in Taupo dawned promising weather-wise, although there were still some ominous clouds scudding across the sky.....we could even see the mountains we had missed the day before, outlined on the horizon....

Lake Taupo with Mts Ruapehu, Tongariro, & Ngauruhoe on the Horizon

but we were ever hopeful.....there were plenty of patches of blue sky.........and we had lots planned......

Lake Taupo

First port of call for the day was Craters of the Moon, where the Angels got their first real taster of geothermal activity.....

Craters of the Moon, NZ

The glorious earthy colours of sienna, fern, ochre, algae, red oxide, sulphur, and moss are everywhere and anywhere you care to rest your eyes ........

The pathway around the site is very clearly marked by boardwalks, with signs explicitly explaining not to leave the designated paths.........so you don't accidentally stumble into a steaming vent......they are extremely hot and some are very close to the boardwalks......

and if you bent down close to an open vent......and got a moments quietness from the excited exclamations of the Angels.....you could hear the boiling water popping and sizzling in the vent......

Steam never stops rising from boiling, bubbling, blubbing mud pools......bubble, bubble, toil and trouble......

Boiling, Bubbling, Blubbing Mud Pools

there is a constantly faint whiff of rotten eggs caused by ever-present hydrogen sulphide that is found in geothermal areas......where is that smell-o-vision when I need it......

and it was warm.....very warm......it was quite sunny, with just enough cloud cover to provide a welcome respite in this sun trap......thankfully we were visiting in the morning, before the sun beat down with it's full-on fierce force.......but you could definitely feel the warmth rising up from inside the earth.....it would have been a pleasantly warm outing had there been no sun.....although the colours wouldn't have been gloriously jewel-like without the sun to lift and brighten the amazing colour palette .....

Craters of the Moon, NZ

Wow.....what a primordial looking landscape, with a bizarre kind of beauty......and this was just the start......there was more of nature's art to wonder and marvel at later in the day......

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New Year's Day.....

And so it was that we set off on our road trip up the North Island......heading for our final destination......Auckland.....the weather looked to be on the improve.......the rain had stopped falling.....the clouds were trying to part......letting the sun shine occasional sparkling rays on us......Grandpa had hired a minivan seating 13, so with only 7 of us, we all had plenty of room......despite the back being piled high with all our bags and suitcases...... we only flew out with 4 suitcases.....but we were going back with 5.....packed to the max of our weight allowance.....we had music to listen to.......maps to enlighten the Angels about our journey.......snacks to stave off the munchies.......and sweeties......tons of yummy traditional New Zealand sweeties.....just cos they were yummy.....and to use as the occasional bribe for quiet behaviour when restlessness started to kick in....well, we had to have something up our sleeves heheheh.


Unfortunately the improvement in the weather as we left Wellington was short lived...... somewhere after Sanson it started drizzling......then continued to gain momentum.......by the time we drove through Wairouru......the gateway town to the 3 central mountains....... Ngauruhoe, Tongariro & Ruapehu......it was torrential. The scenery from Wairouru through to Taupo via the Desert Road.........should have been spectaular with the mountains looming up in the distance.......

Ruapehu (left), Ngauruhoe (conical, centre), Tongariro (right)

and the Rangipo Desert........a barren desert-like landscape........through which we were driving.....giving us plenty to marvel at.......

Rangipo Desert, Central North Island, NZ

The Rangipo Desert sits on the North Island Volcanic Plateau, in the centre of the North Island and, despite receiving 1500 - 2500 mm of rainfall per year, it looks like a wild desolate wasteland.......with a raw, stark, harsh beauty all of it's own. Because of a poor soil quality, drying winds and the mass sterilization of seeds during a series of violent eruptions, particularly ignimbrite flows about 20,000 years ago, the vegetation is mainly tussock and snow grasses......while the headwaters of many small streams, which later to turn into large rivers, gouge deep serrated valleys through the unconsolidated ash and pumice rich earth......heavy snowfalls, uncommon in the rest of the island, frequently occurr in winter....and combined with icy, treacherous conditions, the Desert Road......the only sealed road that dissects Rangipo Desert......is often closed in winter. The Lord of the Rings films were shot in New Zealand, and the Black Gate of Mordor scenes were shot in the Rangipo Desert in 2000.....

The Desert Road

But as we drove through the Desert Road with torrential rain falling as vast silvery sheets, we didn't see any images like those above......all the Angels could see was the road a few metres in front of us, and snatched glimpses of the multi-coloured scoured banks that the road slices through, as we drove past at an almost snail's pace......no snow-capped mountains......no windswept tussock plain......no gorged valleys or dark canyons or shadowy slopes.......just rain and road.....it was a huge disappointment to say the least! And to add insult to injury, just a few days later when Grandpa and Grandma G drove through on their way back to Wellington the weather was clear, fine and sunny, with views to be seen for miles around!

It was still raining as we drove around the lake and into Taupo itself around mid-afternoon .....and continued to do so for the remainder of the night......once at the motel where we were going to rest our heads for the night, we unloaded and stretched ourselves...... after travelling for almost six hours......and then promptly took ourselves off to DeBretts Hot Springs.....an outdoor geothermal hot spring complex with naturally fed mineral hot pools, a water slide, water curtains, spa pool.......set in a lush tropical landscape......it can be quite an exotic setting......

DeBretts Thermal Hot Springs on a Glorious Sunny Day

DeBretts Thermal Hot Springs

but as it was overcast, still raining, and the steam was rising from the pools shrouding the complex in a mystical haze, it had an eery, otherworldly feel......it was really very odd sitting in delicious bath-warm water with cool raindrops tingling your face.

While the Angels and I soaked in the healing, mineral rich, muscle relaxing, skin purifying, toxin eliminating, increasing blood circulation waters.......as they are claimed......Grandpa and Grandma G took a little jaunt to find a supermarket and buy ingredients to rustle up a surprise feast for the Angels and I........no small feat in a tiny motel kitchen with barely adequate apparatus and a dodgy hob which became hot.....burning hot.....when the oven was turned on......ouch.....really ouch......it burnt Grandpa's unsuspecting fingers.....all while we relaxed.....again......waiting for our feast to be delivered.......we were so spoilt.....and it was so yummy!

After Little Lad and Little Miss had been settled into bed for the night, Grandpa produced a pile of old photos in the hope of embarrassing the hell out of me.....old photos of years gone by......images of a very much younger me that my Angels had never seen......but in his rush to pack, he hadn't taken the time to check the contents of his pile .......the randomly gathered stack was also littered with plenty of snapshots of a very much younger Grandpa and Grandma G too......in fact, probably more of them than me.....the laugh was therefore well and truly on Dad.....not me......hehehe

Phew......this has been a rather word-heavy post.....but the next couple of days were a veritable photo-fest frenzy, with tons of natural wonders to keep our trigger-happy fingers popping.......

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NB....none of these photos were taken by me......they were all found on the internet from public information sites