New Zealand #3: Rotorua & Wai-O-Tapu

[canadian_turtle]

Mood: || Good
Tune : n/a







June 21: In the morning I took the bus from Matamata to Rotorua, it took about an hour or so to get there so it was definitely one of the shorter bus trips I've had during my travels so far. Rotorua is a city that's known because, well, it stinks. I thought people were always exaggerating when describing it, but it really smells horrible. It's located on/around all this volcanic activity and the sulphur gasses erupting from the earth leave behind a disgusting smell of rotten eggs >.< And no matter what I did, the smell still penetrated through and I unfortunately didn't get used to it at all during my time in the city.

Aaaanyway, I had about half a day to explore the city and the first thing I did was figure out what tour I wanted to do the next day. There were several thermal "wonderlands" I could pick from in the area that would show interesting things like erupting geysers and colourful lakes (because of the minerals) and I finally decided on Wai-O-Tapu and made the booking. After that I had a stroll through the city. I saw Rotorua lake (not overly exciting though there were heaps of birds) and sulphur point (stinky, obviously). I walked to the museum (I didn't have time to actually go inside but the building itself was pretty impressive already) and from there to the Government Gardens. Finally I went to Kuirau Park where there are a lot of fenced areas where you could see the gasses lingering just above the ground and bubbling mud pools and such. When I went back to my hostel I found out I had the room to myself that night, which was awesome xD


Sulphur gasses at the shore of Lake Rotorua












The beautiful building that houses the museum




Entrance to Government Gardens


June 22: Since most of the more colourful volcanic evidence is at least an half hours drive outside of Rotorua I booked a trip to Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland for today; this included shuttle transfer. On our way to the park we had a brief stop at a location where there was a giant pool/lake/idk filled with bubbling mud and it was awesome to see the mud forming into little hills that exploded into the most fascinating shapes.

The first thing we saw in the park itself was the famous Lady Knox geyser. Underneath the crater there's two different chambers, one filled with hot water and above it one with cold water. The cold water prevents the hot water from erupting but every 24 to 27 hours the two mix and the geyser comes to eruption. Seeing this is now a tourist attraction they manually make the geyser erupt at the same time every day by adding a bit of biological soap into the crater that will force the two waters to mix. At first we thought the geyser was a bit lame as all it did was foam and have a small little eruption, but it got higher and higher until it became quite impressive.

After that the walk through the park took about 1.5 hours and went along bright coloured lakes (green, blue and even a bit of yellow -- all because of the minerals) and fuming craters, despite the smell it was all very awesome.


At the mud pool


Where I had heaps of fun photographing bubbling mud xD










The Lady Knox geyser...


...exploding




One of the many, many craters inside of the park




Can you see the bright blue and yellow coloured patches in the water? That's from the minerals
















Such bright colours, it looked like someone had spilled paint


Oyster Bay








The vivid colours of the Champagne Pool




A random bright green lake






More pictures can be found HERE.

Comments

[cornix.livejournal.com]

Rotorua!! I've only been there once, when I was 7, but I was fascinated by the bubbling mud, lol. Other than that all I can clearly remember is a) So stinky! b) A big geyser, I think it was this one (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pohutu_Geyser), and c) Eating a corn cob that was cooked in a hot pool.

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

LOL I can't believe you still remember the smell, that's horrible! Did the corn in the cob taste any different?

[cornix.livejournal.com]

Haha, well, it's a hard smell to forget! Especially since I was 7 years old so a whole town that stunk seemed kind of exciting (though unpleasant). I don't think the corn tasted different, all I really remember is that it was delicious, but it was a long time ago so I'm not sure other than that.

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

True fact!

I can imagine, I've only had corn on the cob twice in my life or so, but really enjoyed it xD

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I haven't been there forever, but the smell is pretty unforgetable. I believe if you stay there a while, you do get used to it, but on first approach it is quite overpowering! Love your pictures :D

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It is >.< It's quite unimagineable that you can actually get used to it. Walking around I kept wondering what made anyone decide to live in the city...

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Heh, I suppose that is a natural thing to think, but if you are around something all the time, I imagine your senses just get used to it! I know on family holidays we used to visit there, and the first few days were always really awful, and then the longer you were there the less noticeable it would get.

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It just seems impossible to get used to it! I mean in my accommodation it didn't smell (and I assume the houses are the same) so wouldn't you have to get used to it every day again when you set a foot outside your house? O.o Having said that, the scenery was totally worth it xD

[lijago.livejournal.com]

I think my friend Alyson & I stood watching boiling mud for like 10 minutes when we were in Rotorua, it was just mesmerizing! :D

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

So did I! If it weren't for the bus driver urging us to leave (otherwise we'd miss the eruption of the geyser) I could've spent half an hour just watching the mud bubble.

[chrryblssmninja.livejournal.com]

lol fun mud bubbles

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It was so weird actually seeing it happen, but also really interesting xD

[cosmicavatar.livejournal.com]

I'd have been mesmerized too. Absolutely fascinating. I love the way one can find so many different landscapes in New Zealand.

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how divers the landscape in New Zealand is. On the North Island here I've seen a lot of evidence for vulcanic activity and mostly green hills dominating the scenery, on t he South Island it's supposed to be higher mountains and a lot more snow (so excited about that, omg!).

[nfctdwthlupinus.livejournal.com]

Whoa! My favourite set so far, I think. The boiling mud and most of the pics after look so prehistoric! LOVE IT!

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

The boiling mud was so surreal to see! And kind of mesmerizing, I couldn't stop watching it...

[bohemu.livejournal.com]

lol, I would spend forever at that bubbling mud myself. Actually, all of these places would fascinate me to no end.

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I did! If it hadn't been for the bus driver urging us to leave (otherwise we'd miss the eruption of the geyser) I would've spent the rest of the day there...

[decadentdream.livejournal.com]

Yeah I kind of want to have been with you on that day (traveling through stinky-town) - those pictures look AWESOME! I never actually wanted to go there before, but I do now :$

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Just on that day? D: :P

The city REALLY stinks though. It's hard to grasp until you're actually there.

[romancebuff.livejournal.com]

Wow, that looks really cool! Kind of sounds a little like Yellowstone, which my folks have been to.

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Oh really? I had no idea Yellowstone was on top of a volcanic field, that's really neat ^_^

[ingalunda.livejournal.com]

what an interesting place - the craters are really cool!

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It was really quite wicked :D