North Island Day Six
Again we started our morning early, departing the hostel by 8am. We wanted to check out Huka Falls, only a 10 minute drive from where we were staying. Perfect. From there, we would fill up on petrol, as it is called around here, and be on our way to Rotorua and the Thermal Wonderland.
Luckily, Huka Falls was not only close, but we didn't even have to hike to see them. In fact, I sported my jandals (flip-flops, it stands for Japanese sandals) and socks. People do sport that look in public around here so I didn't feel too odd wearing it. But mostly I didn't want to put on my hiking shoes. I told Hira this was a great indicator that I was extremely comfortable with her. I mean living with someone for four months will do that I guess! Anyways, we went and checked out the falls and the humungous Waikato River. This is New Zealand's longest river and produces about 15% of New Zealand's power. Crazy right?
Again we started our morning early, departing the hostel by 8am. We wanted to check out Huka Falls, only a 10 minute drive from where we were staying. Perfect. From there, we would fill up on petrol, as it is called around here, and be on our way to Rotorua and the Thermal Wonderland.
Luckily, Huka Falls was not only close, but we didn't even have to hike to see them. In fact, I sported my jandals (flip-flops, it stands for Japanese sandals) and socks. People do sport that look in public around here so I didn't feel too odd wearing it. But mostly I didn't want to put on my hiking shoes. I told Hira this was a great indicator that I was extremely comfortable with her. I mean living with someone for four months will do that I guess! Anyways, we went and checked out the falls and the humungous Waikato River. This is New Zealand's longest river and produces about 15% of New Zealand's power. Crazy right?
After wandering around there for a little while, we stopped off for petrol and then began our 40-minute journey to the Thermal Wonderland near Rotorua. Ask any Kiwi and they will tell you that the entire town of Rotorua smells bad. And once we got there, I can't say they were lying, but it wasn't unbearable. It's not like Greeley smelly, but almost rotten egg smelly do to all the thermal pools. There is even a geyser in that park that goes off every day at 10:15am, so we were determined to make it by then for sure. Now, the geyser is nothing like in Yellowstone apparently, but I haven't seen a geyser before so I was excited nonetheless. We had no problems finding our way and were even early! We paid a hefty entrance fee and had enough time to do a 30-minute walk around the thermal park before the geyser would erupt. We got to see numerous craters on our walk that were filled with boiling water. You could even hear the water bubbling, which was pretty crazy. Steam seeped out from nooks and crannies and permeated the air with that lovely sulphur smell. The steam coming out was said to be near 100 degrees Celsius at the surface, which equates to 212 degrees Fahrenheit! Walking further alone, we came across the biggest hot springs in the park called the Champagne Pool. It is clearly a fan of the Denver Broncos! ;) Earthquakes caused the tilt of the spring and the mineral laden water to cover the flat. So any clear or blue colored water is alkali-chloride, cloudy yellow/green water is acid-sulphate, orange is antimony/arsenic, green/yellow colored water is from sulphur/arsenic, and any grey coloring is from carbon. The sun was out and the colors were so vibrant! There was even a sulphur pool that was a glowing highlighter green. Smelly, but so cool!
Hira and I the whole time were wondering how the geyser went off every day at the same time. Well, 10:15am struck and a guide explained a few things about the geyser, and then placed some chemical mixture to induce an eruption. Oh. Well that makes sense. We both wanted to capture it on video, so we sat recording for at least ten minutes, waiting for it to erupt. Finally it began to bubble up and the crowd murmur would get louder due to excitement. Then it finally erupted and it was so cool! The clicks of cameras were going off like crazy! It eventually slowed and the water came back down to the tip of the cone. How cool! A good amount of people began to leave the seating area when the Lady Knox Geyser began to erupt yet again. This time we snapped a few pictures of ourselves, as well as a selfie for our hashtag (#hiraandtaylorinnz) and simply watched it. This eruption lasted much longer than the previous, so we decided to head back to the car once we had gotten our fill of water gushing out of the earth.
Our entrance fee covered the 3 walks within the park, the geyser, and the mud pools. We figured we would take full advantage of it. The mud pools were near the geyser, so we drove another few minutes to see them before returning to explore the rest of the park. It was crazy to see the mud just bubble up like they did. Some were way bigger than others too. There are actually a lot of beauty products in souvenir shops that contain Rotorua mud. Weird, huh?
We then wandered around in the midday sun through the rest of the park. Lots of craters, steam and thermal pools covered the entire place. Crazy to think we walked around a volcanic area all day smack in the middle of the North Island. Hira and I kept wishing we knew more science in order to appreciate the area more. But even still, it was pretty fascinating.
Our next stop before our hostel was the Redwood Forest. Our GPS and my phone lead us to an industrial-like area that was gated closed. Ummm...well that's odd. We stopped in a parking lot to figure it out and a car full of Asians pulled up, asking us how to get to the forest. "We are just as lost as you are!" I wish I could have helped them, but with our classic Hira and Taylor screw ups, I figure I better not attempt to locate the forest with them following. We tried coming from another direction instead and were again met by a closed gate. The sun had seemingly worn us out because we decided to ditch our efforts and check in early to our hostel. Not only would we have FREE WIFI, but the hostel also provides FREE RICE AND PASTA. We arrived at the Crash Palace, as it's called, and well crashed. We both laid on our beds and surfed the internet. It was actually quite relaxing.
Once dinner rolled around, we headed to Pak N Sav (New Zealand's version of Costco/Sam's Club) and got some pasta sauce to accompany our FREE pasta. We also picked up some eggs for the morning. We returned to the hostel and were given a bowl full of pasta each. We then headed upstairs to the kitchen to cook it. It was fairly crowded in the kitchen, so we had to use a medium sized pan, which didn't seem like it would be big enough, but we were going to make it work. We boiled the water with an electric water boiler to speed up the process. A good five minutes later and the pot full of water and spiral noodles was still just sitting there, steaming only slightly. There were no labels on the knobs for the burners, so we had to guess which way was high and which was low. Luckily, someone cooking next to us noticed our struggle and pointed out the sign on the wall that indicated which way the knobs should be for what temperature. Of course we guessed wrong and were sitting there with our burner on low, waiting for the entire pot to boil. Another solid five minutes passed and still no change. I was starting to get a little impatient at that point. It was then that I decided to move over to the next set of burners that had just been vacated. As soon as I placed the pot on that burner, it hissed from the water touching the heat. Wait a minute. I placed my hand over the original burner. "Hira, this one isn't even hot." Yes, we picked the ONE BURNER that was broken. By that point our pasta only needed a few more minutes before it would get too soggy. We called it a wrap, drained our pasta, piled on the sauce, and headed to our room to watch a movie on Hira's laptop. We watched Made of Honour, a chick flick of course, and ate our really soft pasta. By the time the movie ended, it was not even 9pm. It was sad how tired we felt for how early it was. But I guess we hadn't had a morning start after 8am since before we left for the North Island. I think it was starting to catch up with us. I even fell asleep with my glasses on, the music bumping on the floor below, and the room light still on. Guess I was in need of a good night of sleep!
Thanks for reading! I know I am a little late to post these but I will continue to write and wrap up the rest of my adventures in New Zealand!
Once dinner rolled around, we headed to Pak N Sav (New Zealand's version of Costco/Sam's Club) and got some pasta sauce to accompany our FREE pasta. We also picked up some eggs for the morning. We returned to the hostel and were given a bowl full of pasta each. We then headed upstairs to the kitchen to cook it. It was fairly crowded in the kitchen, so we had to use a medium sized pan, which didn't seem like it would be big enough, but we were going to make it work. We boiled the water with an electric water boiler to speed up the process. A good five minutes later and the pot full of water and spiral noodles was still just sitting there, steaming only slightly. There were no labels on the knobs for the burners, so we had to guess which way was high and which was low. Luckily, someone cooking next to us noticed our struggle and pointed out the sign on the wall that indicated which way the knobs should be for what temperature. Of course we guessed wrong and were sitting there with our burner on low, waiting for the entire pot to boil. Another solid five minutes passed and still no change. I was starting to get a little impatient at that point. It was then that I decided to move over to the next set of burners that had just been vacated. As soon as I placed the pot on that burner, it hissed from the water touching the heat. Wait a minute. I placed my hand over the original burner. "Hira, this one isn't even hot." Yes, we picked the ONE BURNER that was broken. By that point our pasta only needed a few more minutes before it would get too soggy. We called it a wrap, drained our pasta, piled on the sauce, and headed to our room to watch a movie on Hira's laptop. We watched Made of Honour, a chick flick of course, and ate our really soft pasta. By the time the movie ended, it was not even 9pm. It was sad how tired we felt for how early it was. But I guess we hadn't had a morning start after 8am since before we left for the North Island. I think it was starting to catch up with us. I even fell asleep with my glasses on, the music bumping on the floor below, and the room light still on. Guess I was in need of a good night of sleep!
Thanks for reading! I know I am a little late to post these but I will continue to write and wrap up the rest of my adventures in New Zealand!
Thermal Wonderland | Rotorua |