Roadtrip: Volcanic Ventures

This morning I had to pack up all my things once again, ready to check out. As we picked up all our bags, we realised that we hadn’t eaten the ‘hokey pokey’ ice creams we’d bought the other day, so we got in the car and had them for a very unusual breakfast as we started on our way to Wai-O-Tapu ‘Thermal Wonderland’!

On arriving at the Wai-O-Tapu thermal area, the stench of sulphur overwhelmed us as we got out of the car, it really emphasised the point that we were in an area of volcanic activity. I also loved the name ‘Thermal Wonderland’ – it sounded so quaint! The park itself is 18km2 and boasts the largest area of surface activity in the North Island’s volcanic zone, caused by various eruptions over the last few hundred thousand years. We followed the 3km trail around the park, seeing lots of different types of volcanic goings on, including craters, collapsed craters, pools, falls and caves –all having been formed from eruptions which occurred in more recent times (over the last few hundred years). Each had an unusual name (such as Devil’s Ink Pots, Rainbow Crater, Frying Pan Flat, Bridal Veil Falls and Artist’s Palette) and was completely different to the last; the only likeness was the smell! I thought I would get used to the pungency of the aroma over the course of the walk, but this was not the case; I found it abhorrent the whole way around and at times it became even more overpowering and necessitated a swifter pace to get past the offending section!

I noticed that much of the volcanic rock around all the different parts of the park had patches of vivid colours; yellow, orange, purple, white, red, black, brown and green, caused by deposits of minerals from the volcanic vapours. Lots of the pools were steaming away merrily, as the water simmered and bubbled – according to the information boards, the water has been recorded as reaching temperatures of 300oC; it was really tempting to put my hand in the water to see just how hot it was, but thankfully I managed to curb the temptation and did not get severely burned! Some of the pools were not filled with water, but instead mud which also bubbled away with the heat from the magma beneath, left over from previous eruptions. We had missed the geyser which goes off only once a day, but we found the place where it would have erupted from, the hole was surprisingly small and unimpressive! One of the impressive pools was the large, round and flat ‘Champagne Pool’ – so called because it constantly bubbles with carbon dioxide so much that it literally looks like a glass of bubbly! It is the largest spring pool in the area – 65m across and at points is over 60m deep, and contains so many different minerals including gold, silver, mercury, sulphur, arsenic, thallium and antimony – not a combination one would wish to ingest! Another particularly striking pool was the ‘Devil’s Bath’, a large crater with quite jagged edges but the key feature of the pool is the colour of the water – electric green! It looked most unnatural, but apparently the vivid colour is caused by excess water from the Champagne Pool trickling in and mixing with sulphur and other minerals present in these rocks.

The trail took us over rocks, along boardwalks and on a bush walk through some woodlands comprising of lots of really tall, native trees – these were quite a stark contrast against the hot, rocky landscape around the rest of the park. The trail led all the way to Lake Ngakoro, a lake formed in a crater of a volcanic eruption which occurred over 700 years ago. The views across the lakes were beautiful and made even better by the glorious sunshine.

After the walk, when we arrived back at the centre, we stopped for a coffee in the sun. I got incredibly excited when I spotted a praying mantis crawling up the wall and spent a rather long time looking at that, much to Mike’s amusement. I found it absolutely fascinating and I desperately wanted to hold it, but sadly it was too high up to reach. It reminded me about the time when I was younger when I really wanted one as a pet, so used to go to the Pet Shop in the New Arcade every Saturday and look at them, but my mum said I couldn’t have one because she didn’t want to have to keep live crickets in the fridge! I then got to thinking that I could get one of those little fridges that are so small you can only fit a few cans inside them, as it would be perfect for storing live crickets without the worry of them getting out and eating all the food. So maybe I could now legitimately have a praying mantis without too many concerns... I had just convinced myself that this was the best idea I had had in ages, when I then got to thinking about the concept of ‘playing god’ and having to select a living creature, albeit a cricket, to put to its death and be eaten alive by the praying mantis. Now that swayed me again and I decided that I would have great difficulty doing that (I can’t even kill a wasp or a mosquito and they kind of deserve it sometimes!), so it’s ok mum, you can relax now as you don’t have to worry – it seems like I am not cut out for having a pet praying mantis!

Back with the car, we made for our next quick stops – the Blue and Green Lakes. This involved a long, windy road that weaved around the towering rocks and highlighted the fact that we were driving around volcanoes – I kept my fingers crossed that they didn’t decide to make today the date for their next eruption! When we arrived at the Blue Lake, it wasn’t possible to miss it; it was indeed a very blue lake! I am not sure if the water itself was particularly blue, or if it was just the clear blue skies being mirrored on the surface, but it did look rather stunning. It seemed that it was a popular place for boating as we could see a few people hooking up their little speed boats onto the backs of their cars, obviously having just got back from a scooch about on the lake. The edge of the water was lined with tall trees and these were reflected in the water, making for a picture-postcard scene. We continued along round the corner, to the Green Lake which is just next door to the Blue Lake, separated by a narrow line of trees and a car park. It wasn’t quite as spectacular as the first lake, in that it wasn’t as green a lake as the Blue Lake was blue. It was much larger, so lacked the same beauty slightly, but it was indeed a lake and still picturesque nonetheless.

We continued our drive to Te Wairoa – a village which was buried by a volcanic eruption in 1886. The place itself was most interesting, particularly the museum which explained about how this area had previously been a really busy tourist area, even all those years ago, as people used to come to see, climb and bathe in the world famous Pink and White Terraces (said to be the eighth wonder of the world) (natural rock formations with hot springs). The eruption of Mount Tarawera buried these Terraces forever and also engulfed 8000km2 of the surrounding area, including Te Wairoa – the tourist hotspot of the day. They have been excavating it since 1931 and lots of artefacts have been uncovered, including a bowler hat, glasses, bottles and lots of other household things. The mysteries of what happened on the night of the eruption were revealed by diaries found and also from some of the lucky people who managed to escape with their lives.

Having seen the museum, we went outside and walked around the relatively small archaeological site and were actually rather disappointed. The excavations were not impressive at all – more like holes in the ground where a building had once stood, with a corrugated roof over the top to protect it (but what ‘it’ was, was beyond me!). We followed the map of the village and saw holes where various buildings would have been. The most interesting thing was the original water tank that was left by the hotel (or hole where the hotel had been) and the interesting thing about it was that it was made of corrugated metal – this made me laugh; the NZ love of corrugated metal is apparently beyond the destructive capabilities of a volcano!

Our last stop on our schedule was to Lake Tarawera – a very big lake close to the buried village. The lake was formerly used to ferry the tourists to the Pink and White Terraces and just before the eruption, one of the groups going across the lake saw a group of Maoris rowing a war ship across in the other direction, it did not respond to their calls and carried on its way. When they reported the sighting to one the chief Maori elder in the village, he said it must have been a ‘ghost ship’ and that it was an omen, warning of something bad thing to come – clearly he was right! The others in the village obviously didn’t like the truth as after the eruption, he had survived but was seriously injured and they left him to die as they blamed him! Anyway, we had a good look out across the lake and did not see any ghost ships, so we took that to mean we must be safe from further eruptions of Mount Tarawera for the moment! The lake itself is very popular for fishing and at the edge there was a very fine fish measuring device (weight and length!). Other than that and the pretty views over the water, there was very little about!

Having seen and appreciated the vista, we hopped back into the car and embarked on our drive to Auckland. We went back through Tirau, the town with all the corrugated metal, and after a couple of hours and a stop for coffee we made it to Auckland in the early evening. On our way into the city, I spotted a sight more fantastic than anything I had seen previously in the day – a drive through (or ‘Drive Thru’) Wendy’s! I think I nearly made Mike crash the car when I saw it and shrieked with excitement, possibly a bit excessively, but I have never seen a Wendy’s Drive Thru establishment before!

We found the hostel, checked in and then went straight back out to find the Drive Thru Wendy’s again! Even though it would have made more sense to eat inside the restaurant itself, we actually drove through and picked up our dinner; again I was ridiculously over excited! Mike had never experienced Wendy’s before so when we got back to the hostel with the food, he was rather stunned to see that the burger patty was square (oh how I love it when people see a square patty for the first time and marvel at it!). We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner, as unhealthy as it was, then had a beer and watched tv in the lounge. We managed to wangle watching a bit of news and saw further developments on the election campaigns and realised that Mr Brown must be getting a bit worried by now! Then on the movie channel, Lord of the Rings came on and we watched that for a bit; possibly my asking Mike “Who is that?”, “What is that?”, “Why did he do that?” and various other questions of that ilk, might have gotten a bit annoying so we discontinued watching that and turned in!