Thermal Wonderland

Trip Start Jan 11, 2009

Trip End Apr 12, 2009

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Where I stayed

Angler's Motel

(Turangi hotels)

Flag of New Zealand Turangi, North Island, New Zealand
Saturday, February 7, 2009

We went back to the camera store to consider buying A2 a replacement 40D camera, but they were sold out. So, our option was to get the 50D which is the next model, or a "cheap" Canon digital SLR. While pondering the options we were told the warranty would only be valid in NZ and AU. It looks like we will have to try and get it repaired in Bangkok.

We decided to roll out of Rotorua as it got quite busy with the influx of reggae fans (30,000). We were concerned about negotiating the roads with up to 30,000 people high on various forms of hashish. On the way out we saw a huge fire across a field in the middle of a horse race track but we thought perhaps it was a group "blaze" amongst the faithful concert goers.

We headed south towards Taupo, stopping at the Wai-O-Tapo Thermal Wonderland, which is sort of similar to Hell's Gate from the day before but with more color

. We loved this place and spent several hours exploring all the sites as well as shooting a few hundred more photos of mud bubbles in action. The Emerald Pool was the highlight of the walk, as it's a lovely blue clean pool with orange and white edges. This is definitely a worthy stop on the North Island.

We continued southwards, checking out a huge geothermal plant which provides 5% of NZ's power. This place was massive. We tried for a tour, but it was closed, however within 4 square miles we could instead have gone prawn fishing, jet boating, lugeing, sky diving, bungee jumping, obstacle coursing, learned hatchet juggling, or wheeled through a wall of fire on roller skates. The north island seems to be heavy on adrenaline touring and not so much on nature or education, so we had to check out the power plant from afar sans tour.