NZ Day 2: Rotorua

We woke up a little sore from all of our walking on day one. Pathetic, I know. But we were still super excited to see this next thermal wonderland: Wai-O-Tapu. Wai-O-Tapu means "Sacred Waters," and this park is known as New Zealand's most colorful volcanic area. Despite the cloudy and rainy weather, we were not disappointed.

This park covers some 18 sq.km and is covered with collapsed craters, cold and boiling pools of mud, water and steaming geysers.

 

The color of the water actually changes depending on the weather. After heavy rainfall, the water appears cloudy but with sunlight the water will appear blue. There's an underground stream with a water temperature of about 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees F!!) The underground streams are heated by magma left over from earlier eruptions... water temperatures in some areas have recorded temps up to 300 degrees C! So crazy!

Our pictures really don't do this colorful park justice since it was a cloudy and rainy day. But despite the poor weather, we were still really impressed with this park.

The geyser Lady Knox erupts at 10:15AM every single day. It's pretty impressive actually - all the staff have to do is put a bar of soap in there... and then it erupts!

We ended our trip to this park by walking to see some giant bubbling mud pools.  It was like watching a fire burn... absolutely mesmerizing.

After spending our morning trekking through the thermal park, we decided to check out the Buried Village that we'd seen advertised in some brochures. We sadly discovered that this this was an absolute (and expensive) tourist trap. I guess we were expecting to see... well... a buried village of some sort..? Instead, we got to see reconstructed homes. We were SO disappointed! Luckily, we did take a short hike and discovered a beautiful waterfall. That almost made the ticket price worth it. ;)

Despite the smelly atmosphere, we really enjoyed Rotorua. I'm so glad we decided to stay here two full days - so much to see! Up next: Hobbiton!