Travel Tip #5: Ziploc bags. For everything.
OHAKUNE, NEW ZEALAND
For the past couple of days it seems like we've been going nonstop, driving all over the central North Island to see as many sights as we can before we have to head south. (It's been great, but kind of tiring, to be honest.)
Yesterday we went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, a scenic reserve outside of Rotorua administered by the Department of Conservation. It's known for having the largest area of surface thermal activity of any hydrothermal system in this area, which means the whole park is covered with boiling mud pools, steaming springs, and terraces of volcanic deposits. The minerals in the water create a whole palette of colors: sulphur = yellow, iron = red, ferrous salts = green, manganese oxide = purple, etc. It's an extremely unnatural-looking (and smelling) landscape, for sure, and all the features have names like "The Devil's Inkpots," "The Devil's Bath," and so on. Satan sure likes his geothermal activity.
Also at Wai-O-Tapu, just down the road from the main park, is the Lady Knox Geyser, which erupts every day promptly at 10:15 am. (The reason it's so punctual is that a ranger pours soap into it at 10:14 am to break the surface tension and cause an eruption. I am totally serious.) It would naturally erupt on its own every day or so, but I guess that's not convenient enough for the busloads of tourists that visit. Consequently, watching it erupt felt to me a little like seeing a "canned" performance, especially with all those seats built around the geyser like an amphitheater. But I guess I enjoyed it anyway.
Another natural phenomenon unique to New Zealand is the glowworm caves at Waitomo, which I had heard about many years ago and really wanted to check out. So this morning we drove there and I took a tour of the caves (Chris wasn't interested, so he waited outside). A guide led us down into the caves, which include some pretty big galleries, and then to a boat which took us down an underground river to see the glowworms (technically, they're the larval stage of the fungus gnat), which hang from the ceiling and emit a blue light. There are literally millions of them in the caves, so it's kind of like boating through a planetarium of countless blue stars. Very cool.
We then drove south to Tongariro National Park and took a scenic flight over Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngaurohue, two of the volcanoes in the park. It was late in the day, but the weather was near-perfect, and the view was spectacular. We were the only two passengers, and I sat in the co-pilot's seat, so the viewing was great. Mt. Ngaurohue, used in the Lord of the Rings films as Mt. Doom, was especially impressive. It was also cool seeing an aerial view of the Tongariro Crossing, the 17-kilometer track across Mt. Tongariro that we're planning to hike tomorrow. But man, some of those slopes look steep!
OHAKUNE, NEW ZEALAND
For the past couple of days it seems like we've been going nonstop, driving all over the central North Island to see as many sights as we can before we have to head south. (It's been great, but kind of tiring, to be honest.)
Yesterday we went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, a scenic reserve outside of Rotorua administered by the Department of Conservation. It's known for having the largest area of surface thermal activity of any hydrothermal system in this area, which means the whole park is covered with boiling mud pools, steaming springs, and terraces of volcanic deposits. The minerals in the water create a whole palette of colors: sulphur = yellow, iron = red, ferrous salts = green, manganese oxide = purple, etc. It's an extremely unnatural-looking (and smelling) landscape, for sure, and all the features have names like "The Devil's Inkpots," "The Devil's Bath," and so on. Satan sure likes his geothermal activity.
Also at Wai-O-Tapu, just down the road from the main park, is the Lady Knox Geyser, which erupts every day promptly at 10:15 am. (The reason it's so punctual is that a ranger pours soap into it at 10:14 am to break the surface tension and cause an eruption. I am totally serious.) It would naturally erupt on its own every day or so, but I guess that's not convenient enough for the busloads of tourists that visit. Consequently, watching it erupt felt to me a little like seeing a "canned" performance, especially with all those seats built around the geyser like an amphitheater. But I guess I enjoyed it anyway.
Another natural phenomenon unique to New Zealand is the glowworm caves at Waitomo, which I had heard about many years ago and really wanted to check out. So this morning we drove there and I took a tour of the caves (Chris wasn't interested, so he waited outside). A guide led us down into the caves, which include some pretty big galleries, and then to a boat which took us down an underground river to see the glowworms (technically, they're the larval stage of the fungus gnat), which hang from the ceiling and emit a blue light. There are literally millions of them in the caves, so it's kind of like boating through a planetarium of countless blue stars. Very cool.
We then drove south to Tongariro National Park and took a scenic flight over Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngaurohue, two of the volcanoes in the park. It was late in the day, but the weather was near-perfect, and the view was spectacular. We were the only two passengers, and I sat in the co-pilot's seat, so the viewing was great. Mt. Ngaurohue, used in the Lord of the Rings films as Mt. Doom, was especially impressive. It was also cool seeing an aerial view of the Tongariro Crossing, the 17-kilometer track across Mt. Tongariro that we're planning to hike tomorrow. But man, some of those slopes look steep!
posted by John Kuge at 8:55 PM
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