Day 41 Rotorua, Waimangu Volcanic Valley, Aratiatia Rapids, Lake Taupo

The best weather day we have had in New Zealand. That is what we woke up to this morning.  Sunny, hot, no rain, no wind and the best test of all, Kathy is in a t-shirt. I don't want to jinx it but could summer be here?

We met a couple of Canadians last night, Rob and his daughter Chloe are from British Columbia.  They are biking around NZ on a tandem bike for a few weeks and they are having a great time.  I wanted to get a picture of them this morning, but they were long gone when I woke up.  Hopefully we will see them down the road.

We decided to leave Rot'n rua (Kathy's description) and eventually make our way to Lake Taupo. We wanted to stop at Waimangu Volcanic Valley which is 14 kilometers south of Rotorua on the Hwy to Lake Taupo. It was 6 kilometers off the main highway and that 6 kilometers was some pretty interesting farmland.

Once we arrived at the valley we learned that the valley began to form in 1886 when Tarawera Volcano erupted with such a devastating effect that Lake Rotomahana exploded to twenty times its original size.  This gave Waimangu Valley two exclusive features. The first is that it is the only hydrothermal system in the world that can pinpoint its surface commencement, June 10, 1886.  The second feature is that the Waimangu Geothermal System is the newest geothermal system in the world.

With this knowledge in hand ( and a wanderer's guide ) we started our 4.5 kilometer walk through the valley.  The first site we came to was a panorama view of the valley with Mt. Tarawera dominant in the background.



Mt. Tarawera - the badboy that started all this.



Waimangu Volcanic Valley



There is a very good walking path that we followed and we soon came to Southern Crater which was formed by the 1886 eruption.  It has not been active since then and the water in the crater is cold.  The water in the crater is called Emerald Pool.



Emerald Pool in Southern Crater

One of the other interesting craters and lakes is Echo Crater and Frying Pan Lake.  The lake water is acidic with a pH level of 3.5.   There was a 15 minute eruption in 1973 that sprayed mud for more that 100 meters.

Echo Crater



Frying Pan Lake



Frying Pan Lake overflows into Hot Water Creek at a temperature of 50 degrees C.  The minerals in the water along with blue-green algae form the spectacular orange, brown, green and yellow colors see along the edge.

Hot Water Creek



Hot Water Creek




Hot Water Creek



It was shortly after the creek that we began to climb.  Did I mention that there were stairs, again!!!



Up   Down  Up   Down

The stairs led us up to the start of the Mt Hazard Hiking Trail and Inferno Crater Lake.



Inferno Crater and Inferno Crater Lake



The sun was directly in my face so it was hard to get a good shot which was too bad.  The lake is a real pretty pale blue color.  An interesting fact is that when it is low as it is now the temperature is about 35 degrees C but when it is overflowing which happens quite regularly the temperature is around 80 degrees C (176 F)

We continued our climb until we came to the summit which gave us a look at Lake Rotomahana.

Lake Rotomahana

We decided that we would catch the bus back to the entrance and continue our drive to Lake Taupo.  We really enjoyed our time here and it was well worth the money.  I took some shots of a couple of other sites we saw in the valley today.

Marble Terrace



The Devil's Blowhole




Warbrick Terrace




Pond on Warbrick Terrace



We left Waimangu Volcanic Valley and made our way to Lake Taupo.  It was a good highway with little traffic so we made good time.  Just about 10 minutes from Taupo we came to Aratiatia Rapids which is on the Waikato River.  When we got there the rapids looked like this.



Aratiatia Rapids



Aratiatia Rapids



Not impressed.  At 4:00PM they opened the dam and all hell broke loose.  Well, not really but the rapids did get bigger and fuller. We did expect the water to rush down a little faster but it still was nice to the watch the change take place.

This

Now looked like this.

We finally had enough excitement for the day and started looking for a campsite.  We found a Holiday Top 10 Park and settled in for the night.  We had a marvelous dinner of Eggs Benedict, did the dishes and then relaxed for the rest of the evening. It was another very good day in New Zealand.