Did Somebody Say Geo-Thermal Wonderland?

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Today (Tuesday it was, I think) I went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland 30K south of Rotorua. It was so rad. There was this mucky mire and fantastic stink around every corner. Rotorua has extremely active underground thermal activity. Driving along the parkway, you see bands of steam piercing up through the hillsides. At Thermal Wonderland, they have craters that have collapsed into the ground and boiling mud bubbling from down in the depths. The sounds are incredible! Without getting into all the science involved, let me suffice it to say the colors, the smells, the sounds all combined for a wonderful adventure in wonderland. I don’t believe the pictures capture even a fraction of the experience…

Go to Snapfish and use this account: email address = [e-mail]; login = public. I've totally run out of time so they are not in the order I would like at all but at least they are up for viewing...

In other news, the driving today was a bit harrowing, as I had to follow a detour through some back farmlands due to a flour truck that had spilled over on the main parkway. But I’m an old pro at driving now anyway. Bring on the Mac truck. I also did a bit of night driving. After my second hot springs visit at Athenree (more to come), I decided to travel a bit further north. These roads were seriously windy. Uphill, downhill, countless 25kph curves (that’s ~10mph in American). It was pitch black, no streetlights, only the stars and oncoming cars. Fortunately, there weren’t many other cars on the road which worked out well cause then I got to use both sides! Also, I don’t like it when the cars queue up behind slow Mr. Camper Van. I pull over when I can and let the little speed demons zip by but still, I feel pressured. The best part was though, when I arrived at my destination on the lower south-east side of the Coromandel Penninsula, the whole land mass had lost use of their cellphones, debit card machines, internet access and basically the ability to make any landline phone calls outside the area. Created a bit of comraderie between those of use on the main street of this small beach town figuring out how to pay for dinner.

I did meet a Dutch student that night at my hostel who was doing the same thing I am - traveling around the North Island. Thing is, he’s doing it on a bike. Man, I thought I was really getting out and taking in the sights. In total, he will spend 7 weeks touring around.

Back to Athenree Hot Pools. Athenree exists at the end of a long road headed for the beach. I don’t think many people travel this route. But in reality, I didn’t find out two licks about the place. The Hot Pools come from a source 800 metres below the ground. It was a nice pool in that Mexican ceramic tile color with dark ocean blue tiles. Very New Mexico feel about it. The water was not too hot, more like that bath water temperature you wish were a few degrees hotter so you could stay in longer. There was a hotter spa set to the side. The pool was long enough for me to swim laps in. It was about 5pm when I got there and I watched the sky change color from a whitish, licac color to lavendar and couldn’t remember ever having swum outside at sunset before. An enjoyable evening but didn’t beat my natural hot spring the day before.

More Food for Thought: I’ve been driving along the Pacific Coast highway and I’m not in California… (this won’t mean much to those who don’t know there’s also a PCH running the length of California. But now you know…)

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