Hubble, bubble, and lucky for us travellers, no toil or trouble!

Sunday 22nd - Tuesday 24th November, 2009

We knew that we were getting close to the geothermal area of New Zealand when we starting smelling rotten eggs! It's the sulphur in the earth which causes the smell - but you soon get used to it when you have a stinky brother who, throughout your childhood, subjected you to death-by-farts torture. With that aside, the best thing is that there are lots of natural hot springs and gorgeous spa places around, and it's even better when you find out where the locals go for a quick free dip - a natural hot pool in the middle of nowhere, hidden away from the world of tourists. As we got close to Roturua we found ourselves heading straight to this local "hot spot", Kerosene Creek, and getting our swimming gear on as quick as we could. I can't begin to tell you how amazing this place is - sitting at the bottom of a mini water fall is a bubbling hot pool of water, warmer than a warm bath. We liked it so much, we went back for a second dip, first thing on Monday morning, and what a way to start the week! For me at the time, it felt like one of the most calming places on Earth. Not only are the waters said to help ailments like arthritis, and aching muscles (which we have plenty of with all our walking!) but we were surrounded by nothing but nature, the sound of water falling over the rocks, birds twittering, and early morning sun dappling through the leaves on the trees... so beautiful... oh, until I sat on an empty beer bottle wedged in the sand at the bottom of the pool - bloody ignorant tourists no doubt!

We spent the rest of the day being proper tourists exploring some magnificent sights. First stop was 'Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland'. The name sounded a bit naff to me, and I must admit I was a bit skeptical about going, but it really was an incredible park; it's a scenic reserve sitting on the edge of the largest volcanic caldera in the (still active) Taupo volcanic region. You take yourself on a guided walk where you are faced with wonder upon wonder of super-natural looking scenes; collapsed craters with steam rising out of the bottom, mini 'fumeroles' omitting stinky volcanic vapours, pools of bubbling mud and spectacular pools of coloured water. One of the pools, the "Artisits Palette", had smatterings of yellow and orange all over the water, hence the name, and the colours change shapes according to the heat and the wind. We spent much longer than we ever thought we would here, and our sense of smell l was bitwarped by the time we left! Our next other-worldly stop was at 'Craters of the Moon' - which is pretty self explanatory in terms of what we saw - a big area of craters and scenes of a landscape which looked like it was smoking; again pretty spectacular. After a day of wonders down in the valley, we made our way around Lake Taupo and up towards the volcanoes so that we could play with the big boys (see 'We're Doomed' blog entry!)

Cx