Carrying a Tired Boy

We had a great day in this forest, it was one of the best walks I have done. As we got to the end we saw kaka (forest parrots) flying between the trees.

Watch Out For Trolls!

James had a great time, he walked at least half the way and spent much of the time hunting trolls.

Ferns

The dense ferns provided plenty of shade

Whirinaki Falls

Picnic

We had a lovely picnic next to the Whirinaki falls.

Tree Hugger

Just like his mum.

A Stroll in the Deep Dark Wood

Today we visited the Whirinaki Forest Park. This is a beautiful dense forest that was almost destroyed through logging.

David Bellamy led a campaign to save this 'Dinosaur Forest' and the remaining 55,000 hectares have been protected for 25 years now. The forest is populated by very tall totara, kahikatea, miro and rimu trees.

It was a wonderful place to spend the day, we had great weather and saw only a handful of people despite it being a bank holiday.

Cooking Pot

This pool of boiling water is called Ngararatuatara which means 'Cooking Pot' as it was (and still is) used by Maori for cooking.

Pohutu

Actually there are two geysers here, the smaller angled one at the left is called The Prince of Wales Feathers and the large one is Pohutu which means 'big splash' or 'explosion'. They are very impressive.

Watching the Geyser

The Pohutu geyser erupts every twenty minutes or so and was much bigger than the Lady Knox geyser which we saw yesterday.

Scary

This fierce carving guards the entrance to the Whakarewarewa geothermal park. We visited there this afternoon to see the famous Pohutu geyser.

Racing

There are three tracks to follow and they are wide enough to allow overtaking so it is possible to race which makes it even more fun.

Hang On

At the bottom of the luge is a chair lift to take you and your luge back to the top. There is a good view of the lake during the ride.

Luge

This morning we rode the gondola up Mount Ngongotaha and drove the luge down to the bottom. James loved this so we had to do it again and again. Tracy and I liked it too!

Mud!

The best bit of the day for James was the boiling mud pools. This large pool of thick mud was bubbling and plopping constantly. Every now and then a big eruption sent a shower of mud and a strong sulphurous smell into the air and made James collapse with laughter.

The Devil's Bath

Another of the very colourful lakes at Wai-o-tapu.

Bubbly

The Champagne Pool gets its name from the bubbles of CO2. The water temperature is 75 °C and the orange deposits are made up of compounds of arsenic, antimony and sulphur.

It was very pleasant to sit by the pool for a while, breathing the warm steam and listening to the constant hissing of the popping bubbles.

Steaming

As we walked around the edge of the pool we were engulfed in clouds of steam.

Colours

The champagne pool is the colour of green glass and around the edge is a vivid orange mineral deposit. It looks a bit like a coral reef.

Champagne Pool

Wai-O-Tapu (Maori for “Sacred Waters”) is famous for the champagne pool , a large and colourful hot spring.

We spent the whole afternoon walking around the park exploring all the various geological features.

To keep James interested we told him that there were dragons living underground and that the steam was dragons breath and the sulphur deposits were dragon snot! This strategy was very successful and we had a great time sneaking past caves and trying not to wake the dragons hiding inside.

Thar She Blows!

Today we visited the Wai-o-Tapu thermal region. This is a large park which has lots of thermal activity such as the Lady Knox Geyser. I have wanted to see a geyser ever since I saw Old Faithful on the telly as a small child and this did not disappoint. The water shoots up about 20 metres into the air and rains down on the audience when the wind blows in the right direction.

This geyser was discovered in 1901 by a gang of prisoners working in the bush. They discovered that by dropping a block of soap in the hole the geyser could be made to erupt on demand providing a natural shower. This trick is employed today to ensure that the geyser erupts once a day at 10:15 AM which makes it very tourist friendly.

Hot Water

Just next to the steaming path we found this pool of boiling water. It was over a metre across and bubbling furiously. We were only a short walk from town and it was a reminder of just how much volcanic energy is just beneath our feet.

Birds

Sulphur Point is home to 60 species of birds. They must like the warm waters but they have to fly elsewhere for food. Fish can't survive in these waters which are shallow and low in oxygen.

Sulphur Point

After we left the museum we went for a stroll down to the lakefront. This easy walk was fascinating as steam and sulphur gasses vented either side of us. After a few minutes we reached the lake at a place called 'Sulphur Point'. Dense sulphur deposits give a milky colour to the water and a pungent smell to the air.

View From the Roof

There is a viewing platform on the roof from which you can get a good view of the town and lake.