Day 13: Rotorua

Rotorua is a geothermal hot spot home to primordial forest and scrub, steaming craters, bubbling vents, geysers, boiling mud, silicate terraces, and fluorescent ochre and turquoise pools. We made the short drive south to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland to walk the grounds. To call it a wonderland makes it sound grotesque like Disney World but since I found it to be a wonderful terrestrial park, I'll let it slide.


Lady Knox Geyser

Left to its own devices, the geyser will erupt every 48-72 hours. But to meet tourist expectations on a reliable timetable, they introduce soap into the geyser cone every day at 10:15 am to prompt an explosion. The geyser delivered.

Afterwards, we walked the looping trails taking in "wonders." Viewing the colors of the pools and falls and mounds was like viewing everything in a photo negative. Trippy. Never thought I'd ever see a bile green lake.


and the boiling mud pools...