i think day 4 was the most dramatic geo-wise as we went to the wai-o-tapu thermal wonderland – about 30 mins drive from where we were staying.
after finding ‘a park’ (ie parking space) and buying our tickets we had to get back in the car and drive 5 minutes back in the direction we’d come to watch the geyser go off.
lots of people were worried it wouldn’t go off at its daily 10.15am spot due to the hour change, but we needn’t have worried as it’s actually triggered by dropping soap down the blow hole ! (it’s actual frequency is between 24 and 36 hours so it’s not really cheating).
after that we went round the thermal wonderland place itself. if you can spare the time, sit through the slide show below.
there were plenty of signs saying stick to the pathway, although i can’t imagine anyone not doing that. although at one point we did have to walk across an unpathwayed bit
it was totally amazing and you really feel the earth’s core is pretty thin. and of course the visit to the buried town the day before showed just what could happen …
esther didn’t like the smell. hydrogen sulphide is pretty disgusting.
after we’d done the tour and the gift shop and the cafe we went to a bubbly mud pool nearby which was free to watch and quite amazing.
and then we drove up a dirt track to kerosene creek which i’d been tipped off about by a friend from work.
this is a hot water stream running through a creek and at one point in a little clearing there’s a waterfall making a natural swimming hole. even i got changed in to my swimmers and went in.
one of the highlights of the day was standing in the steam from one of the biggest hot water pools. there was a bit of a breeze so the steam was blowing in all directions and it felt like you were flying.
at one point the steam was so thick we couldn’t even see each other even though we were standing next to each other
here’s the slide show (i think you can click on the pictures themselves to open up the show bigger)
and here’s the obligatory google map