Claire, Dave, and I left this morning for Taupo in their 4x4 Charlotte the Chariott. Before leaving Rotorua, we stopped at the Kuirau Park. Amazingly, this place was not listed in my Let's Go budget guidebook, or their Lonely Planet. The park was free, full of beautiful landscape and geothermal activities not seen anywhere else but in commercial parks. This park was free tho! Lots of mud pools and dormant looking geysers abound. Definitely worth a mention in guidebooks - it's free, beautiful, and in walking distance of town center.
Our first stop out of town was at Kerosene Creek (probably named for the smell of the place). It was a free thermal river. We stopped there for a quick bath and the only thing that surrounds us was nature, one naked old man swimming, and a few people on a picnic. The water was like perfect bath temperature and had a small little waterfall set in the background. Felt very good in the water, but the nearby sign warning us of amoebic meningitis was a put off. We could not put our heads under water because if the water gets up our nose, we could catch the disease and die (there is no cure apparently).
As we were leaving, we passed bunch of school children. We were grateful for the perfect timing. How traumatic it would have been for these kids to see our naked asses as we stripped to change by our cars in the parking area.
Our next stop was the Hidden Valley Orakei Korako Geyserland. There were lots of neat geysers and colorful mud pools, as well as one of the world's only 2 geothermal caves. This place is a bit far from Rotorua or Taupo (tho it is in between the two), so it is less touristed. The surrounding trees gave a jungle-ish feel to the place, and with the steams coming out from underground here and there, I almost felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie... only if there weren't these wooden platforms for us to walk on. We walked around the park - cheering as the Diamond Geyser spouted hot water in the air, marvelling at the colorful formations made by the lava flows and stuff, and made a wish as we stuck our left hand into the water in the geothermal cave.
Our unplanned stops for the day was the Huka Falls and Craters of the Moon. The water in the Huka Falls was so clear it was such a pretty blue when the sun reflected off of it. It was also a very powerful fall, tho a short fall, after a very powerful rapids down the river. We wondered how fun it must be to white water raft down that river, only if it weren't for the rocks on either side and the possibility of getting sucked under the falls. Claire and Dave theorized that, perhaps like a James Bond movie, if you went fast enough on the river, you would get shot out and land past the falls instead of falling with the falls. Surely, someone out there is stupid enough to try and find out.
The Craters of the Moon was another geothermal area full of mud pools and such. The landscape was relatively flat, and as you look across the area, you can see steam, lots of steam, coming out of the ground all over the place. The unique thing about this place are the craters that are formed from the geothermal activities. As pressure builds up underneath, the surface is blasted open by steam.
After we turned what's normally a one hour drive to Taupo into an all day drive, we arrived in Rainbow Lodge. We stopped in Woolworths to grab some groceries and made chicken fajitas for dinner. For once I didn't have to eat my 2 minute noodles. I slept well tonight, having had one of the most enjoyable, and productive (got the most for what I spent), days yet in NZ.
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