The geyser waits for no man...except maybe a Park Ranger

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Get to the Geyser!!

This was probably our most prolific day of sightseeing yet. Our travels took us south from the city of Rotorua through a number of additional thermal areas, including the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Area, Hidden Valley Thermal Area and the Craters of the Moon.

We arrived at Wai-O-Tapu at roughly 9 am, and found out that a geyser in the park is “scheduled” to erupt at 10:15 (more on the “schedule” in a minute), so we had to rush through the park a bit (see the video). We also caught a variety of brilliantly colored pools, mud pots and steam vents that kept our eyes dazzled and our noses, well, occupied (see previous entry).

At Wai-O-Tapu, there’s a relatively well known geyser by the name of the Wonderland Lady Knox Geyser. The geyser is “scheduled” to erupt every morning at 10:15 am, which means that it’ll be spouting hot water 13 meters in the air whether it goes off on its own or not. If it’s not spouting on it’s own by 10:20, a park official pours a bit of soap into the top of the geyser to effectively break the seal inside the geyser to get it started. That may seem a bit of a downer, but he assures us that there is pressure building underground and his pouring soap into geyser is simply releasing that pressure. Either way, it made for a nice show.

The next site was found in Hidden Valley, about 30 kilometers away. After we read that the Lonely Planet write that “It’s possibly the best thermal area left in New Zealand, and one of the finest in the world”, we just had to check it out. And, for a thermal area, it didn’t disappoint. This sight included a large vertical cave that descended several stories and contained a teal colored pool whose warm, acidic waters can clean jewelry.

There was a lot of ground to cover that day, so after a while, I think all the time in car got to the both of us. Greg and I caught a few moments of travel humor, which included picture of a CD case found in our rental car (not including CD) and a bag of tasty chips.

We ended night all the way down at the southern end of the North Island, in the city of Wellington.

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Photos

Thermal Pools
The foreground is a series of thermal pools and the background is a cooling tower from a local hydrothermal power plant that runs off of the steam from the thermal activity

Otherworldly
Some strange shapes and colors

From the Depths
I took this from the bottom of the cave looking up

Fried Eggs?
Or mud pots?

Grasshopper fight for its life?
Or more mud pots?