Countryside walking but not as you know it...

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I'm dropped off at the start of the Waimangu Volcanic Valley trail and find I'm the only one from my morning group to take this add on so I'm really pleased as they pull out of the car park and leave me to a whole blissful afternoon of solo hiking, just the way I like it. The lady in the reception area hands me a trail leaflet with loads of interesting info for various places along the trail. She explains that I'll need to catch the 3.50pm bus at the end of the trail to bring me back to the start point in time for Thomas to pick me up with his afternoon Wai-O-Tapu group.

And so I set off to the start of the trail where I find some art work depicting 1886 tourists observing the eruption of Tarawera. Everything in the area in front of me was destroyed by the eruption, trees, plants, animals, bird life - complete devastation. I'm standing at the same spot as the people in the painting and it's looking lush and green once more, all vegetation a result of recolonisation since that date.

I'm high up looking down into a steep-sided valley covered in trees and other vegetation including tree ferns and pampas grass. It's a world away from civilisation and should therefore be wonderfully peaceful and quiet, but unfortunately there's a light aircraft doing circuit after circuit overhead buzzing like an angry mosquito looking for some poor victim to bite. I wish it would come and try it on with me so I could twat it one! My irritation grows as does the venom of my expletives as it seems it is not in fact boring beyond measure to do the same circle ad infinitum. I decide to have my lunch overlooking an emerald coloured water filled crater with steam rising from various places in and around it and wait out the dullards circling above figuring they will eventually realise they're seeing the exact same things they saw on each of their previous 20 circuits! And yes eventually they head off into the distance, the buzzing gradually getting quieter, not before a photo is taken of the one finger salute!

I carry on down the trail taking loads of photos of beautiful leaves, moss, lichen, fungi and ferns. I emerge at the bottom in front of the emerald crater pool I'd seen from higher up the trail. Up close I can see parts of the water is bubbling as well as steaming. More 'Danger, do not stray from the path' signs are in evidence, it seems with very good reason. On one information panel there's an old photo from 1903 showing the Waimungo geyser erupting dramatically in front of a couple of tourists who'd come to witness the massive 5 hour event that happened once every three days.

Flowing out of the lake is a stream that meanders down the valley, the trail following alongside it. It's just like going for a walk back home, but here there's STEAM rising up from the hot water and many brightly coloured rocks striped with mineral deposits. Every so often there is a plopping, hissing steam vent bubbling up boiling water. It's so strange to see something so seemingly familiar yet so utterly weird and extraordinary.

At one stop on the trail my info sheet explains why there's a white cross up on the hillside ahead. It seems a few tourists didn't take the DANGER signs seriously enough and were washed to their deaths when the Waimangu geyser erupted. I'm reassured to find this geyser stopped erupting some time ago, but no-one quite knows why.

I'd been wondering how any plants managed to grow in such harsh conditions, both because of the heat and the strange chemical mix. Another info board explains that there are four hydrothermal zones for plants, the first being sites with temperatures over 90 degrees C where only some algae can survive. The second zone includes sites with temperatures between 50 and 70 degrees C - here just a few mosses and lichens can take hold. In zone three a few more plants, predominantly prostrate kanuka and a few ferns, are able to cope with the 40 to 50 degree temperatures. Zone four obviously includes a lot more species in the cooler, less acidic sites, particularly ferns with many varieties occurring.

A little further on there's a flat area of yellow and white silica deposits which reminds me of a favourite story from my childhood 'The Magic Porridge Pot'. Looking at my photos it seems as if a massive gloop of porridge has enveloped everything in its path until someone must have said 'Stop little pot, stop!'.

The last part of the trail goes across the old lake floor towards the current day Lake Rotomohana. I've just remembered that roto means lake in Maori so that last couiple of words actually reads lake lake mohana! The information sheet says the predominant plant in this area is the New Zealand native Toetoe. The main plant I can see is pampas grass so maybe its other name is Toetoe.

In the trees lining the footpath I spot some little birds flitting about fanning out their tails. Guess they must be - fan tails! Sitting on a dead branch by the lake side is a type of brown shag or cormorant and, taking me by surprise, there in the undergrowth about two metres away at the side of the path is a little face looking right at me, big ears, light brown fur. What is it? I suddenly realise me and a little wallaby are eye-balling each other. We stay like this for at least three minutes until it suddenly bounds off. What an amazing experience.

Across the lake I can see the mound of Tarawera but over this side of the lake there are loads of water birds vying for the best spot. I see a few new birds I've not yet seen on my New Zealand travels and find out later that they are paradise ducks, pied cormorants and pied stilts. What a wonderful end to my Waimangu volcanic valley trail.

I find there is just time to fit in a boat trip on the lake and me and a lovely Polish couple are taken around the lake, finding out that it is vastly increased in size and therefore cooler following the 1886 eruption. We are taken into a crater, my first time having a boat trip IN a volcanic crater! Apparently there are loads of other craters under the lake. I learn that the land in this area is owned by the Department of Conservation and the rest by the Iwi, a Maori tribe. There is no public access allowed on the lake so we are the only boat there. We pass some grey looking pines in amongst other trees and we find out that they are being poisoned to get rid of these non-native species. The boat trip takes us past some final fumeroles at the side of a large cliff face and then it's back to the bus before meeting up with Thomas and his new group before heading back to Rotorua.

What an absolutely incredible day of geothermal wonders, walks and water. Thanks New Zealand you are utterly awesome!

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