Taupo was great and if we'd had enough time, we could've stayed a week, but Rotorua was beckoning and we were now well on our journey back towards Auckland for our flight home. We stopped above for a quick roadside nap and then headed into Rotorua town to find out where we could camp for the night. The tourist information sites were fabulous all over New Zealand, but this one was not. Marius bravely went to the police station and they gave him great ideas about where we could park for the night...
It was perfect - right on the banks of Lake Rotorua...
We went to one of the local pubs for a pre-dinner drink - there are surprisingly few pubs in Rotorua...
The next morning was frosty again and Marius felt sorry for the birds and so fed them cereal...
Funny prehistoric looking birds. There was no signboard, so I have no idea what they're called, but it was quite funny watching them trying to walk on the ice, they've got really long toes...
It was also hunting season in New Zealand and the Canadian Geese were all about...
And that's where we spent the night...
Jake had packed me a hand line, so I had to cast it for him somewhere in New Zealand. I didn't catch anything, but at least I tried...
Moari artwork is lovely and so fascinating (be prepared for an overkill of photos)...
We went to a park to see bubbling mudpools and a geyser blow it's top and these pictures were all taken there...
Such wonderful textures - I could've stayed and taken photos all day...
I especially like this one, though not sure why...
They are pretty weird...
The boiling, bubbling and really stinky mud...
The Maori's refer to the bubbling mud as leaping frogs...
The geyser wasn't quite ready to blow, but it was starting to get hot and angry-looking...
There is a lot of sulphur and other deposits all over...
The whole land seems to be smoking hot and I did try touch an unfenced section of ground and it is warm...
More sulphur - you can imagine the pong...
The blue pond...
And the gap in the earth from where the geyser explodes...
Our tour guide wasn't prepared to wait, but we decided to rather skip the rest of the tour in favour of seeing the geyser blow and we're really glad we did...
The water shoots out of the geyser so fast and it's so hot, that it turns to steam as soon as it reaches the air...
It shoots up to 30m in the air. That's very high...
Look how tiny Marius is next to that...
Our next stop was the Californian Redwood Forest - again, we wished we had more time...
The trees seem to go up into forever...
Marius looks so small...
Is a Silver Fern like the one on the All Black's jerseys...
Autumn was really the best time to visit - the colours were magical...
We're nearly done... just one more stop before we head on home!
Sue XXX
1 comment:
Beautiful beautiful pictures
Post a Comment