Volcanic Plateau

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This morning we awoke early as we had an early ‘visit from home’ with the arrival of the Oriana, whose home port is Southampton sailing right past our motorhome at the foot of Mount Maunganui. The ship was passing as we looked out of the windows from our comfortable bed at 7.30 pm, no doubt Mount Maunganui will be crowded today, it was so peaceful yesterday so glad we are moving on. Before we had breakfast we decided to walk around the base path of the mountain and by this time the Oriana was docked in the harbour at the edge of the mountain. We washed down the motorhome (still have some home chores to do!!) before we set off. We travelled through ‘Kiwi Fruit’ growing country with orchards all along the road side (the fruit tastes particularly good here). We arrived at Lake Rotorua earlier than expected as the roads were quiet and so we continued to Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake) where we were going to camp for a couple of days to see this hot and steamy thermally active area. On arrival to our surprise the lake was rather crowded (not many places crowded) as today was a special regatta day for the Bay of Plenty rowing clubs and we spent a couple of lazy hours watching them row across the beautiful blue lake. The weather which has been lovely since we left Auckland was still sunny but now there was a bitter north wind blowing and the rowers were struggling with the cold and so were we! In the afternoon we made a trip to see Te Wairoa, a village buried by the volcanic eruption of Mount Tarawera during the early hours of 10 June 1886, and was New Zealand’s greatest nature disaster. As well as ending many lives the eruption destroyed the so called ‘eighth wonder of the world’, the magnificent Pink and White Terraces as well as the villages of Te Wairoa and Te Arike and killed many Maori and Europeans. In the mid 19th Century Lake Rotomahana, near Rotorua, was a major tourist attraction where Victorian tourists came to see the terraces, two large beautiful multi-level pools, formed by silica deposits from thermal waters that had trickled over them for centuries. The Maori village of Te Wairoa, on the shores of nearby Lake Tarawera was the departure point for visiting the terraces and these were buried under two meters of thick volcanic material. There is an inescapable eerie feeling here as you walk past the remnants of Maori buildings frozen in time at the moment a community was extinguished and although on a much smaller scale than Pompeii, which it reminded us of it was no less harrowing. We thought that the whole village had been wonderfully reconstructed, the excavated houses also contained many artifacts that were found in them on various archaeological digs. There was also an excellent small museum telling the stories of the people that lived there during the eruption and how they struggled after as they had not only lost their homes but also their livelihood with the terraces destroyed there were no more Victorian tourists. At the end of the village there was a steep track to Te Wairoa Wateralls following a meandering stream where there were wild rainbow trout swimming along side the track as you walked by and which then led to a magnificent 100 foot waterfall. We met two lovely ‘elderly’ (can we still say that) New Zealanders on the way around whose relatives had immigrated to New Zealand many years ago and they had both served in the army and air force during the Second World War. One of them had even been stationed at Waitangi which was the very campsite where we had stayed a couple of days before. On the way back we stopped at a look out point between the Tikitapu (Blue Lake) and Lake Rotokaakahi (Green Lake) and although they are side by side, one is blue and the other is green. The next day we decided to take in some geothermal activity and went into Rotoura which is far and away the most commercialized tourist destination on the North Island nicknamed Sulphur City it has the most energetic thermal activity in New Zealand and we had our first experience of ‘the smell’. We visited the information centre which was very helpful and we decided to do the Cultural Heritage Trail which took you around the main sites of the city. It was really strange to see our first sight of thermal steam rising from the ground in the middle of a beautiful ornamental garden with poppies and tulips in flower and fine buildings all around like the museum which was located in the world-famous Bath House building and architectural icon in itself. The trail also included the Prince’s Gate Arches which was erected in 1901 to honour the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (later King George V and Queen Mary), the Blue Baths (thermal therapeutic spa) as well as splendid lawns and grounds including a croquet pavilion and lawn. That afternoon we travelled to a thermal reserve called ‘Hells Gate’ which was just outside the town, the Maori name, Tikitere, recalls the legend of Hurutini, who threw herself into a boiling pool because her husband treated her with contempt - I decided that it was a little too hot for me! This was truly a strange but spectacular place and we spent a long time wandering around the different thermal features including Hot Pools, Fumaroles and Mud Pools. On returning to our campsite I thought it would be a good idea to follow a circular bush walk of the blue lake forgetting than Paul’s pace is so much quicker than mine and the route which was supposed to take 1½ hours but we completed in an hour! Next day our aim was to travel to Lake Taupo and on the way to stop at Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters) a colourful and diverse volcanic area with walks around the geothermal activities where you can experience the raw beauty and sheer power Mother Nature has to offer. Near to the site there is a large geyser called Lady Knox, which erupts daily at 1015 hours with a little encouragement from a staff member who adds some soap into the vent (we thought that this was a little false) however the geyser does erupt on its own within a time period of up to 72 hours so they set it off once a day so that tourists can see it erupting, otherwise it might erupis in the middle of the night when no tourist are around!! Despite this it was a truly spectacular event not to be missed with the water reaching heights of 20 metres. We found the actual reserve to be even more spectacular than ‘Hells Gate’ particularly because of the various rock/water colours and the terrain. There was the ‘Artist’s Palette’, a panorama of hot and cold pools, and steaming hissing fumaroles in an amazing variety of ever changing colours, Bird’s Nest Crater, swallows and mynahs nest in holes on the walls of this collapsed crater as the heat from below rises up the crater walls to incubate the eggs, Devil’s Bath with an amazing colour, the result of excess water from the Champagne Pool mixing with sulphur and ferrous salts. Changes of colour through green to yellow are associated with the amount of reflected light and cloud colour and today it looked very yellow and finally my favourite, the ‘Champagne’ Pool which was formed 700 years ago and has a surface temperature of 74 degrees centigrade, this is unique in the world, a fifth of a hectare of bubbling, hissing water, with a beautiful ochre-coloured petrified edge. It was here we had a long conversation at the side of the pool with a father and daughter from Salisbury of all places - it’s a small world. Upon leaving the reserve we visited a Mud Pool, violent and spectacular boiling mud the largest site in New Zealand in the middle of beautiful heathland. We then proceeded to our next campsite calling in on the way to see Huka Falls, where the full force of the Waikato River hurtles from a narrow gorge over a 36 foot ledge, the noise was deafening. We then proceeded to our overnight stop and planned the next day where we are going to head for the Tongariro National Park with its mighty active volcanoes, Mt Rupehu, Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe (which starred as the scary Mt Doom in the film trilogy, Lord of the Rings) where we are going to hopefully tackle the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, said to be the best day walk in New Zealand which in the leaflet is graded as ‘a challenging hike’ of 18.5km (7-8 hours). Hopefully we will continue from here in our next blog…….

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Comments

[John & Charmian]

Mount Doom
Keep your eyes out for hobbits!

[Elaine and Bob]

we are so jealous!
Thank for mail and most recent blog. You are having such wonderful experiences!! Will mail again soon. Keep safe xxx

[Kit & Roger]

Boiling Mud
Hi Guys Don't think I like the look of the Boiling Mud think I will give that a miss thanks. Will email later for a catch up. Take care xx