I say howdy and folks here immediately think I'm from the USA. Strange.
The ferry rides are too short for
any serious laptop computer work,
but the rides are great for blogging
offline.
On Tuesday I edited the photos and videos
from our weekend trip and I posted the
Rotorua images from last Friday.
Tonight, I missed the 530 p.m. ferry by
seven minutes and I'm at the dock waiting
for the 630 p.m. sailing. More time
for blogging about our Saturday at
Wai-O-Tapu, geothermal miracle place.
The geothermal action was so intense--thermally
and odiforously--that our return to Rotorua left
us thinking that the town didn't smell so bad
after all.
After the hotel breakfast, we drove on over peaks and
across valleys and came to the visitor center where
we saw this sign:
How does that sign apply to this place?
There is smoke everywhere! It's not burning of course, and
the sulphur deposits and plants make it the least acceptable
place to have a smoko--check your Australian dictionary for that one.
The colors here show the deposits near the vents include sulphur--yellow--and iron oxide--red--and other compounds. Benjamin and I agreed that the place reminded us of Star Trek episode 18, Arena, where Kirk has to kill the Gorn by harvesting sulphur deposits and making gunpowder. Yeah, that was a good one.
What's that dear? Oh, yea--Lucy told me to get back to our story, sorry.
Most things here have Devil in the name--if not the details. These
boiling mud ponds are called the Devil's Ink Pots.
Staying on path is a great idea. The land is active and changing. The areas off path can collapse at any time. Several structures changed over the last decade. One had a natural arch over a deep pit. The arch wasn't any fun at all--it fell into the pit one day.
We started our tour at the Lady Knox geyser. She starts to spray at 1015 a.m. every day. Luckily, she sprays for a good 45 minutes. We were late and we had to deal with the outflowing traffic from those who saw the spray start and then found it too repetitive to stay through all 45 minutes.
Two hour break
I was dockside blogging when the ferry pulled in at 615 p.m. However, the large boat--the SomethingFlyte--is away for three-weeks trials and they sent us in the Jet Raider. A smaller boat with close seating. Enough room to drink a Speight's Golden Ale, not enough room to blog.
Back to our story ...
Emily near the Devil's Bath. That Devil uses all these things. Although it was a cloudy day, this pool had a Mountain Dew color that was amazing. The camera didn't catch it in the dim light, but it looked like everyone at last night's rave broke open their glow stick and poured it into the pool. The pamphlet says the color changes from yellow to green as the sun moves across the sky--when there is bright sun.
Dad in greenery. There are some green areas between the geothermal vents. One is a man-made forest and the other has native plants.
Yes, we needed those parkas. We were farther south--that's nearer the pole here--and at higher altitude.
The Champagne pool--a video appears far below--stays 74C year round and sections have colors from the minerals and oxides that collect there.
We took every loop path--there are three--and saw the whole area. The third is the most intense. Here Lucy photographs us and we photograph her across a hot flat area on our way to the Frying Pan Flat.
At trail's end, Emily poses by the waterfall that takes the water into the ...
large lake beyond. Benjamin thought that NZ is the right place for filming LoTR. This huge, strangle colored lake is scary. Emily looked at the horizon, set the zoom to maximum and shot
this distant peak. Are those the gates to Mordor?
Next Post: The Agrodome Sheep Show. My favorite!
Emily's video showing the Champagne pool.
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