All things volcanic and thermal

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Welcome to the planet Volcan, which turned out to be central New-Zealand north island. Part of the Ring of Fire around the pacific, the quite active Taupo volcanic area stretching more than 200 km, has everything from hot springs to volcanoes. Even lake Taupo itself, biggest one in NZ, is a result of a massive volcano that exploded a little more than 2000 years ago, sending so much ash into the atmosphere, the Chinese and the Romans noticed it.
Well, being a tourist, I had my share of thermal adventures so this post turned out rather long. For those of you not terribly interested in things volcanic, I can suggest looking at the pretty pictures and skipping right to the end or even just waiting for the next post which should be much shorter and might contain mildly amusing remarks regarding bus drivers.

Craters of the moon
an area the size of a small stadium, filled with smoking craters, bubbling mud pools and sulfur clouds. It stinks but with its almost lack of vegetation tends to give an alien world feeling. As far as solar system constitutes go, reminded me more of Io than the moon, but that's a matter of opinion.

The Tongariro crossing
The finest day hike of them all. So fine, that it feel like walking on a boulevard, with literary hundreds of people around. Not that it's too easy - there are some climbs, a steep and unstable decent, possibly bad weather (we had 60km/hr winds), and around 16km of walk with a deadline for the shuttle bus. But still, walking between volcanoes in a thermal active area is a totally different experience from any hike I did. Conical peaks, vast craters, colorful rocks and lakes in all the shades of blue, are all sights to remember, especially with the atmosphere created by the clouds flowing very fast all around us. Still, the clouds meant I couldn't see far away Mt Taranaki. I'll have to get back to this one.

AC baths
What better way to end a long trekking day than in a hot pool? This is actually a very modernized pool complex, especially considering it was open more than a century ago, that used to serve the people of Taupo as public baths before electric power was introduced there in the 60s. Swam some laps in the regular pool (how I've missed that!) and just enjoyed myself in the geothermal heated main pool. I wished they had this at home.

Polynesian spa
Similar to the hot baths, in this known Rotorua institute there isn't a swimming pool but several small mineral pools with different temperatures under the open skies with a wee too much Japanese tourists and an extra benefit of a slight rotten eggs smell. Supposed to be good for you.

Te Puia
One of several thermal parks around Rotorua, sporting bubbling mud pounds, boiling water pools and geysers as the star attraction. Pretty impressive, not in the high but more in the sheer quantity of water - didn't really stop the whole time I was around, more than 3 hours. And very beautiful rock formations. Oh, and while not strictly thermal, I got to see a Maori concert there which was pretty much everything you can expect it to be.

Well, all in all, the Pacific tectonic plate was very kind to go under the Australian plate, pushing the magma up, thus creating all those curious effects, but I'm pretty fed up with the rotten eggs smell.
Onwards!

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Photos

View over lake Taupo
From left to right: Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, Tongariro.

Mt Ngauruhoe
Tongariro crossing

Red Crater
Tongariro crossing

Emerald lakes
Tongariro crossing

The blue lake
Tongariro crossing

AC baths
They're hot!

Cooking pool
Te Puia

The geyser
Te Puia

Mud pools
Te Puia