The natural and unique wonders of the Waimangu Volcanic Valley

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My trip to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley began with the pick-up of the Thermal Land Shuttle at 9 am. The shuttle bus was punctual, had comfortable seats and was furthermore heated. The bus driver was also friendly and gave his passengers some interesting facts about Rotorua and its environment during the ride. After a 30 minute drive we arrived at the Waimangu visitor centre, where our driver dropped us off. Then the bus drove further to the geothermal park of Wai-O-Tapu.

The visitor centre contained a ticket and cashier desk with an additional souvenir shop and cafe. At the ticket desk everybody got a brochure called the “Wanderer’s Guide”, which provided a map, a bus timetable and facts and explanations about all important sights, which you would be able to see during your walk.The bus would pick us up at 12.30; hence we had enough time to discover the whole area. After we got the map we could start our walk through the volcanic valley. The walking track from the visitor centre to Lake Rotomahana measures 3.6 km, which takes approximately 2 hours. The Valley has 3 bus stops along the track and the buses are departing every half an hour into both directions (to Lake Rotomahana and back to the visitor centre). This assures that you come back easily from the end of the valley to the starting point.

On the first part from the visitor centre to bus stop 1 you could see many craters, as well as steaming lakes and impressively and differently coloured rock formations. Furthermore a hot and steaming river was running through the valley and provided also a broad range of extraordinary colours. The most amazing and impressive sight was the Inferno Crater. This stunning crater was coloured in a remarkable and unique pale blue with a changing water level in a cyclical pattern. After the Inferno Crater you could follow the normal track or do the longer Mt Haszard Hiking Trail. I decided in favour of the second option. This hiking trail was covered with steep hills and many stairs and hence became pretty exhausting. I recommend wearing appropriate hiking shoes to climb the hill. Once arrived at the top, a beautiful view over the valley presented itself. Furthermore you could also see craters and steaming rock formations. The trail was then merging with the normal walking track.

The part from the end of the hiking trail to the bus stop 2 was presenting a hot and steaming river, as well as unique terraces and pools. For instance the Marble Terrace is composed of similar material to the Pink and White Terraces, which were destroyed by the eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886. The part between the second and third bus stop was unfortunately closed, because it was flooded at this time. The bus took us finally from the bus stop 2 back to the visitor centre. There you could spend some minutes before the pick-up in the shop and the cafe. The shop provided souvenirs like tea, marmalade, honey, lotions, jewellery, carvings and lots of other different things. At the cafe you could take a break to eat a muffin, a sandwich or just to have coffee or tea.

The shuttle bus picked us up at 12.30 like announced and drove us back to Rotorua, where we got dropped off at the accommodation, where we were staying. For any further information about the volcanic valley just have a look on the Waimangus homepage: http://www.waimangu.com/

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