mike & rhonda's latest adventure: We're in the Kitchen

.....a large one with stoves all around us. Things are simmering, some are boiling, yet there are no temperature controls that we can adjust on any of the stoves. That is the feeling one might get travelling around the centre of the North Island where there is geothermal activity going on everywhere. It is a nice region to visit but some day the kitchen is going to have some extreme Gordon Ramsey temper tantrums. It is only a matter of time.
Since leaving the lovely east coast beaches we have ventured into this 'steaming' area. Our first stop was at Rotorua, with a well earned nickname of the "Sulphur City", evident in our walkabout in the city parks and along the shore of Lake Rotorua where stinky steam was rising out of the ground in numerous places. On another day we ventured out to Waiotapu where a 4 km walk took us through many colourful pools, boiling mud pots and small geysers. Their prime geyser is showing it's age, only going off once a day now at 10:15 am.......and even then with some assistance......the park claims that organic soap does the trick but I'm thinking they use Viagra to satisfy the large tourist crowds that show up daily to see the 20 metre high geyser. Having recently seen the larger and non-perfomance-enhanced Old Faithful in Yellowstone NP, we chose to do morning hikes in a Redwood Forest (1901 plantings) and a short walk to Crater Lake at Rainbow Falls before venturing over to the Waiotapu geothermal park when all of the tourists were departing. It was a more relaxing way to see nature at work and wonder about what her future plans are.
The next day we drove over to Waitomo to see a few of their famous caves. Spellbound and their guide, Norman, provided a wonderful tour for us (and 8 other visitors). We spent 45 minutes in the first cave, walking for over 100 metres (it was pitch black after the first 20) and then boarding a rubber raft to float further in along an underground stream. Once our headlamps had been turned off and our eyes were well-adjusted to the darkness, we could see that the cave ceiling was filled with Glow Worms (similar concept to fireflies). It was an amazing sight and reminded us of the spectacular Milky Way view that we had in the Pantanal in Brazil. The second cave had fewer Glow Worms but plenty of stalagmites and stalactites visible during the 250 metre walk in. There were many other caves in the area, caused by the shifting Pacific and Australia plates and the power of water massaging softer rock, but these two were impressive.
Yesterday we arrived in Lake Taupo, the fiery heart of the North Island lying in a caldera formed by one of the earth's biggest volcanic eruptions 26,000 years ago (that they claim made Krakatoa look like a 'pimple'). There have been many more eruptions since then, the most recent one happening 17 years ago. Our original plan was to do a highly rated hike in the National Park south of here (Tongoriro Crossing) but some volcanic rumbling 3 months ago has closed most of the trail so we will find another strenuous hike elsewhere to test our resolve.
As we set out this morning to explore the Taupo area, we stumbled upon the morning set-up for an afternoon speed boat race in the lake so we shortened our visits to several places in order to return on time. Our first stop was Huka Falls......lots of volume but only a 10 metre drop. Then we checked out the Honey Hive and Meadery (good honey, average mead) and finally, the Aratiatia Rapids which are created when water is released from the dam several times a day (count down clock) and then watching the small gorge below fill with rushing water creating extreme rapids downstream. There were more thermal-active parks to see in the area, including a geothermal power plant, but we passed on those having seen enough of Hell's Kitchen recently. We had a picnic lunch on the Lake Taupo shore while watching the entertaining speed boat race. The 60 mile race (12 laps of 5 miles) kept the large boats in range most of the time (loud, huge spray) and the leader all race long made a critical error on the final turn and narrowly lost the race to the defending champion for an amazing finish.
Tomorrow morning we will head back to the east coast, stopping at Napier which was wiped out by an earthquake in 1931 and rebuilt in art deco style. It is also the start of the wine trail (Hawkes Bay).