January 24, 2002
1/21/02 Rotorua to Taupo The
1/21/02 Rotorua to Taupo
The four of us packed up the car this morning from the Kiwi Paka YHA
and headed for Taupo but before we did we stopped at Wai-O-Tapu in
Rotorua. This is a thermal wonderland, as it's called, filled with a
colorful volcanic area. Actually NZ sits on the youngest fault line
in the world. We walked around for about an hour and fifteen minutes
looking at "boiling water" in various locations...some in craters,
some in geysers, much of it in big sulfer lakes. The place reminded
me of Yellow Stone National Park with Old Faithful. We then drove
about five minutes down the road to a huge boiling mud pool. Really
it looked like a lake of mud that was spewing big brown bubbles out
of the ground. On our way back to the hostel we stopped at a dam
located on the Aratiata River. I was wondering for the first ten
minutes or so why we where there. We pulled up and all these
spectators were crowded around on a bridge over looking the dam. It
wasn't until the bell rang and the dam walls rose that I understood
the significance the rushing water had. The dam releases water twice
daily and is used to supply energy to the surrounding areas. The
water just strarted pouring out millions and millions of gallons.
The river rose at least 30 feet...I'm probably way off on this figure
as well.
After this we were starving so we decided to go shopping and get
sandwich stuff and some chicken breasts for a BBQ. We rested up a
bit and then stuffed our bellies and then drove to Huka Falls (a huge
water fall) at Waikato River...right out of a movie; it was
gorgeous!
We ended the day by going down to the lake, playing a round of
chicken war, of course Phillip and I lost, and lounging around on the
grassy knoll to play a game of scrabble...life is sooo rough!