The smell of sulphur fragranced our room overnight. We had a very comfortable nights sleep, the first night with a real quilt which made all the difference.
We rushed to the supermarket to replenish our jam stock. Surprisingly we have finished a whole jar already!
With ticket in hand we returned to Wai-o-Tapu to watch Lady Knox Geyser erupt. She was scheduled for 10:15 and we arrived at 09:25! The chap at the geyser assured us that the empty car park would be full by 10:15 and would be like that every day between October and March. We wandered down to the geyser, ill prepared for the setup we encountered. It reminded me of the killer whale performances they used to operate at animal parks. The area immediately in front of the geyser was decked in benches and it was only then that I realised how staged the event was. We waited patiently in the sun for half an hour, during which time the entire viewing platform had completely filled with tourists. Then the guide chap appeared, dumped 1.5 kilograms of biodegradable soap down the funnel of the geyser and explained to us that this procedure has been going on for years! The soap acts as a catalyst to they geyser eruption process which would occur naturally every 24 to 48 hours. However, given the obvious tourist attraction the eruption is planned for a set time, 10:15, each day. It is a little disappointing but then again I am a tourist who has come specifically to view a geyser erupt at 10:15 so that makes me a bit of a hypocrit really.
Sure enough the soap suds began to flow out the top of Lady Knox and I was all prepared for her ladyship to erupt forcing water high in to the sky. And then she blew! I expected a rumble or something but it was almost quiet. She ejected water (and soap) some 15 to 20 metres in to the sky and would continue her eruption for 60 to 90 minutes. We stayed for half an hour. All of the other tourists stayed for all but a minute and proceeded to rush to the exit as soon as she threw her first spray and dashed in to a manic crowd as only tourists do. It was as though they were disappointed by the spectacle that is mother nature herself, albeit encouraged by soap, and wanted to rush off to the next tourist attraction to cross that off of their lists. Me? I wanted to return to the mud pools and their fabulous dripping and splattering...
I convinced Ian that we should take another look at the mud pools before we leave the thermal fields of the North Island of New Zealand and we spent another 15 minutes watching the mud bubble and splat in the big pool. I actively didn't take any more picture although I was tempted! On returning to the car I noticed that I had been splattered by the boiling mud pools. My shorts and legs had mud specks on them! The cheeky mud pools...
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful really. We drove around Rotorua, literally, around Rotorua instead of through it. We tried to see something of the Echo Crater and Inferno Crater but found that you have to go on tours to see either and the pink and white terraces which would have been fantastic to see were completely destroyed in 1886 by the volcanic eruption of Mount Tarawera. We stopped for lunch in Tirau and were presented with the smallest sandwich ever! I had a scone with cream and jam to fill the gap the sandwich created!
As we drove in to Hamilton the rains started pouring and absolutely drenched me to the bone as we marched backwards and forwards from the car to the shops in town.
We found a cyber cafe which charged a very reasonable NZD 7 for up to 5 hours so we took advantage and spent 6 hours updating the website. I managed to complete my journals including numerous links to other sites and a special link to an audio clip of mud pools! Excellent!
We travelled a distance of 231 kilometres from Rotorua to Hamilton.
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.