Journal day 71 - To Rotorua.

---

Woke up in Awikera thermal park.

Had a great natural thermal bath. Refreshing.
Drove on to Rotorua.
Lakes.
Hell's gate thermal park.
Arrived in Rotorua. Walked around a bit.
Spoke to Nigel Kelso on phone for first time properly. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up at some stage while I'm here.
Nigel recommended that I go to the Waikite Valley Springs thermal park to stay the night.
I knew the pools closed at 9 but drove out anyway to see. It's pretty easy to know when you're there because of the vast amounts of steam coming out of a large area of ground around the pools. Really bizarre.  The gates were closed but I was able to walk around them and sneak into the empty thermal pool area and to look into the pits of thermal activity all around them. The dark and emptiness of the place added a bit of spookiness as there were only little wooden fences preventing you from going further into the sources of the steam. The water temperatures all around the area are 110 degrees. The minerals in the water raising the boiling point. So it would be pretty painful to slip in. Parked my van outside the gates and played a bit of uke for a bit of company while watching the weird geothermal phenomenon happening all around the van!

---