Very thermal

 

Rotorua! Volcanoes rock!

Yesterday was, as some locals told me, cold – 19 degrees. I went to the Waimangu Volcanic site to check out one of the youngest thermal areas on Earth. In 1886 the eruption of and around Mt Tarawera destroyed all life within miles and created several hot springs and steam vents. Further hydrothermal eruptions opened even more springs and now an entire valley is one big steaming pot with hundreds of small and big pools with boiling water, colorful water, geysers, steaming rocks and fantastically shaped silica formations. Since water carries with it various minerals, it leaves colorful residue behind, making everything even more amazing. The biggest of the hot lakes, the Frying Pan Lake covers 38k square metres and its average temperature is 55 degrees – other, smaller lakes are way hotter. I also took a boat ride around the lake Rotomahana which was created by the eruption, but frankly, it wasn’t worth the money.

After that I went to another thermal park, Wai-o-Tapu. It was very different – this one was created thousands of years ago, had more time to build up. Craters with boiling mud, huge silica planes coloured in red and yellow, a seriously green lake, a seriously blue bubbling lake, and tons of sulfur. If there is a gate to hell somewhere, it’s here. The sulfur stench of demons is in the air – Waimangu had its smell, but here it was sometimes hard to breathe! Like spoiled eggs… it’s good to know mother nature farts worse than I do.

I now felt that I am in a tourist zone. Both places were forbiddingly expensive – and I really don’t see that this is what it costs to run them. I understand pricey museums, galleries, castles, because they have too spend a lot of money on conservation and maintenance of their collections. But here they actually make a point of *not* disturbing the environment, of showing it as it is. So essentially, their costs is cleaning and running the visitors centre. I really don’t know why I had to pay over 100$ for that.

In the evening I wanted to try the famous hot pools. I took a tip from one of the girls who worked in Waimangu and went to the spa all the locals choose. It wasn’t bad, but I was left somewhat unimpressed. Decently maintained, it was made without much imagination. It looked fine, but essentially had several small and larger pools with roughly the same temperature of 36-42 degrees, no cold pool, no jets, waterfalls, no nothing. OK, maybe I`m spoilt by Poznan baths, but it really wouldn’t take much to make it better. And as much as I love the idea of bathing in the water heated up by lava, I think that in a long run I prefer human made spas. Simple reason: I can put my head under water without risking amoebial meningitis.

Back to Rotorua to sleep, and wake up to a beautiful sunrise over the lake. Finally!