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Published: January 18th 2008
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The great thermal area of Rotorua was our next stop in New Zealand. The area is suppose to be full of volcanic activity, maori culture and adrenaline pumping acitivies, we thought we'd have a bash at all of these, but leave out jumping into the boiling mud pools and sulphur lakes!!
The first thing we noticed when arrivng in Rotorua was how bad the place smelt, with a nickname of the sulphur city and a smell of rotten eggs, you could not help but notice the amount of volcanic activity going on around the Rotorua region. The first port of call for us on our volcanic adventure was a visit to 'Hells Gate', Rotorua's most active geothermal area. The area is still Maori owned and is a very informative 'park' to visit and it is certainly active. As you wander around the footpaths all around there are hissing steam vents, mud pools and steaming craters, even the ground we walked upon seemed unnaturally hot to touch. The area is also home to 'Kakahi Falls' which are the largets hot water falls in the southern hemisphere, the falls looked around 5 metres tall which give the impression that hot water falls
Crater Lake
White Island are not that common!! All in all the area proved to be an interesting walk and hopefully not the last of its kind.
As New Zealand is an adreniline junkie paradise we thought we'd get our fix of the good stuff by doing a spot of Grade 5 white-water rafting. Becs S persuaded Bec C that attemting the Kaituna River with the worlds only 7m raftable waterfall was a good idea!! The whole journey took around 3 hours with the 14 rapid stretch taking an hour in total. The whole experience was exhilerating, a definate must for anyone, everywhere. It was a fantastic feeling to raft down the waterfall, be completely submerged by the water, wondering if you're going to come up the right way or not, but then realising you did it and that it felt good. The guides that we had, Chonk and Cam were amazing, we paid respect to the river by Maori prayer, giving thanks and asking for a safe journey. We also did Maori chants throughout the experience which really buzzed us all up and got the adrenaline pumping. On one particular rapid after a leisurely float down the stream outside of the raft,
Stupid as stupid does
Bec C geared up for white island we went down it holding on to the back of the raft. It was a wierd feeling to experience a rapid in such a way, although we were told to tuck our knees up high, the force of the water really dragged them down towards the rocks underneath us. A funny expereince was when Becs C 'volunteered' herself to get drowned by the rapid, sat at the front of the raft, water sprayed up as the guides forced the raft into the water.
So far in New Zealand, one of the best aspects we've noticed is the friendliness of the people and how Maori life is still in full swing with even the young modern guys being fully into their history and anchestry. We decided to experience Maori life up close and personel and booked a culture show with the Mitai Maori village. The whole night was fantastic, we watched the warriors arrive by an ancient war canoe, we ate hangi (a meal cooked in the ground), got educated in the Maori way of life and was thrilled to witness a live war dance, the haka. Watching the New Zealand rugby team perform this dance is fantastic but to
watch it personally with all the tatoos and clothing was just electrifying.
As if all this wasn't enough for us to pack into two days we also decided to go for a wander around the crater of New Zealands most active marine volcano which experiences tremours up to 12 times per day. New Zealand has a total of three active volcano's all with an activity level of one. Zero being inactive and five being highly active. White Island volcano would be higher up than this, possibly a three if it was closer to the land (as its 50km away from the mainland), and a greater risk to life. To get to White Island was a one and a half hour cruise in the pacific were we saw flying fish, as if fish can fly!! Walking around the volcanoes crater was a very surreal 2 hour experience, the crater lake was one of the highlights. The lakes acidity level is apparently -0.5, didnt realise that it could go off the PH scale!! For a number of years in the past, companies have tried to mine the sulphur off the island, all attempts have ended in catostrophy though, going from bankruptcy
to eruptions and landslides killing all those that worked and lived on the island, surely you've got to be paid alot of money to do this kind of work! The remains of the factories in the crater (yes thats right they built their factories and houses in the crater) were still visable if not a little weather and volcano beaten. The volcano last erupted in 2000, there was no warning of the eruption but luckily no one was hurt as the tours had being cancelled due to bad weather. This particular volcano does not erupt with lava flow but with lava bombs that can reach distances of up to 100m. If the volcano had of erupted whilst we were on the island we would have had to of hid behind the ash mounds from previous eruptions. This wasn't as scary as the thought of it erupting whilst standing next to the acid crater lake however as we would have had only 15-20 seconds to run and hide before we were history.
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rob
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awesome
your pics are awesome becs'ses, looks like youre having a blast.. and the volcano didnt. hope i make it out there!