The day began early at 645 am as my mental clock kicked in as we needed to be up and gone by 8am. After a bit of typing and photo work, the 745 alarm sounded and I opened the curtains to a bright beautiful blue sky. Everyone else in the room was legally blinded and not happy with my decision. After everyone had a quick shower, we packed for the whole day adventure and headed out around 8.
As we departed the hotel, we were greeted by the strong sulphuric smell that envelops all of Rotorua. It is much stronger at the many thermal vents in the area but it is still a slap in the face for the weak of smell!
We went a couple blocks away and found a great little restaurant called Nando’s. They had regular breakfast fare at half the price of the hotel. We feasted on pancakes, eggs, bacon, ham, tomatoes, hot chocolate and of course a chai tea for $28NZD. The Canadian dollar is worth $1.25 NZD so everything is about 25% off in real dollars. The unfortunate difference is that everything is priced 25-100% higher here. You would not believe how fruit and vegetables cost an arm and a leg in a country that grows them ten months a year. We have yet to find one thing here that is cheaper than you can get in Calgary on any given day.
We stopped at a bank machine and ‘topped up’ for the day as sometimes our credit cards work and sometimes they don’t. We stopped at the information booth and determined where our two stops were for the day and luckily were able to pay for them there and save the hassle of line-ups later in the day.
We headed south back towards Taupo to our first adventure – the Thermal caves and pools of Waikapu! Supposedly there was a geyser (guy-zer not geezer) that erupted everyday around 1015am and we were on a mission not to miss it. We arrived around 945 and found a seat beside it along with 500 other tourists. A tour guide appeared and told the story of how it had been there for 150 years and how it operated. In order for the geyser to truly ‘erupt’, a certain type of salt stone had to be inserted down the hole that reacted with the 30000 litres below. After a minute, the foam began to pour from the hole and a minute later we had 25m high water erupting from the earth! It was an amazing sight as the wind shifted occasionally and we all got a spray of water on us. The sulphuric smell was overwhelming here much more so than back in Rotarua.
There were a few Asian tourists who insisted on standing up and having their photo taken while it was at its peak and almost got beaten up by the NZ and Aussies who had travelled a bloody long way not to have their view impeded. After 5 minutes, it erupted only to a height of 10m and everyone stood and took a hundred photos and cooperated. It went on for at least 20 minutes, so we decided to carry on back to the interpretive centre to begin our self-guided tour. As we departed, so did the other 500 people and it took a while to get reparked in the lot a couple km away. We did a quick bathroom break and struck out on the tour.
There were 25 stops along 3 circular paths that would around the area. Each crater revealed some oozing pools of water in a multitude of colored stenchy water with steam arising from it. Most were a yellow color, but we found orange, lime green and a few others as well. We stopped for many photos and a couple family pictures along the way. The waterfall was a highlight as well as the giant lake of steam sulphur that blocked out all visibility. The boys’ favourite was the complete lime green Devil’s Lake near the end of the tour as in the photo. After a quick and expensive stop at the gift shop, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the cafeteria and were off to part II of our adventure for the afternoon.
We drove about half an hour south toward Taupo and off to the East to the river. This was the largest river in all New Zealand and runs about 420km in length. We decided to go big budget and blow $300NZ on a Jet Boat ride through the rapids of the river! We got checked in and received our life jackets and headed down to the bright yellow 12 seater speedboats. We got to sit in the middle on elevated seats so we had a great view of our adventure. Our driver Gary was the experienced veteran and by far the better driver! We did a couple turns and stops/starts as he explained how to hang on for dear life. The look on the boys’ faces was priceless as they were certain that death was near for them both.
We headed down the river at 85km/hr. with wind whipping at our hair and clothes. It was almost difficult to see as we were going very fast. Keep in mind, the river is only 20 feet deep and about 100 feet across at its widest so there isn’t a whole lot of room for error here. We got really close to the shore or to fallen trees and would turn away at the last second to the screams of all passengers aboard. We went over rapids and ramped up and down any wave we could find in the river. The waves were fairly tame but when he circled his finger like a lasso, we knew we were in trouble. We spun 180 degrees on a dime, the front of the boat edged into the water, and we shot backwards about 50 feet spraying water in every direction. Needless to say, we got repeatedly soaked all afternoon! The funny thing was that we would almost completely dry off going 50mph for a mile or two down the river and then get soaked again.
One of the most fascinating things was how clear the water was. Because a volcano had erupted millions of years ago, the main rock formations were pumice and therefore hardly any dirt or soil gets washed into the river. You could see clear down the crystal blue water to the bottom of the river and watch the fish swim by like they were in an aquarium. We went over to the side of the river and found a stream bringing cold water into it and found tens of rainbow trout enjoying the extra oxygen in the cooler water. We travelled up to the dam and prepared for the water to be let loose. Every few hours, they let the water go and create some serious rapids. We toured around in them for a bit and before you knew it, our 45 minutes was up. We returned to the office to pick up our CD of photos of our adventure and decided we had not had enough. We drove down the road to a boat launch and hung out in the river water for an hour as the water was extremely warm. To our surprise, a couple jetboats came down the river much earlier than we thought and turned hard at our location completely soaking all of us! It was a bit of a surprise but all in good fun! We got some good photos and video of the other group so that was cool.
After a while, we decided we should make our way back to Rotarua to blow some more money in the souvenir shops. The gas gauge was on E the whole way and a little stress was had by all, but we eventually came across a gas station and filled up. Gas here is $2 a litre – double the price in Canada and to fill up a little tiny car costs $100 every time. We had driven by this giant concrete smokestack a couple times and decided to find it and take some photos. It has something to do with electricity generation but have to do some homework to determine exactly what it is as there was no signage indicating what it was. We got back into town and found the souvenir shops. We found a few with similar prices and picked up some more stuff. We hit the grocery store and bought some snacks for our journey tomorrow as well as some breakfast items so we can make a quick getaway.
We got back to the hotel and unpacked all our wares before taking the boys to the pool to burn off some steam before bed. They didn’t get nearly enough sleep last night and were quite cranky for the most part of the day – the unfortunate side of taking small children on a holiday such as this. Krista stayed in the room to recuperate while Darren did some hard core typing of the events of the day before he forgets them…
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