New Zealand on a Very Tight Budget Day 26
Today we awoke to........light rain . which dried up by 8am! We bade a fond farewell to the campsite - not much of a campsite but great bathing facilities and went across the road to the Wai-O Tapu Thermal Wonderland.
Now I have a bit of an antipathy to anything that calls itself "wonderland" I'll be the judge of that thank you! I was also not sure whether we would be wasting a not inconsiderable amount of money - notwithstanding our 10% discount thanks to the campsite - especially as it had one stinking review on Tripadvisor (although a lot of positive votes. )
I was also having a touch of Geyser snobbery having been one of the last people to see THE Geysir erupt in Iceland back in the 80s.
Now that took a bit of tickling with a lot of soap and so did the one we saw today but the guide gave us a very entertaining account of its discovery by some convicts clearing and planting forestry nearby who thought they would wash their clothes in the hot water. The soap they used acted as a surfactant set the geysir - then a pool - off and sent their clothes into orbit. It is called The Lady Knox Geyser after the prison inspector's daughter and while rather diminutive in size it proved quite impressive in duration. There were 700 of us there to watch it start - and 7 an hour later when it seemed to be spluttering out. In fact there were some quite unseemly selfie-stick fencing between the very annoying Japanese and German late coming tourists standing in front of those patiently sitting.
After that we walked round the "Wonderland" and I have to report it was "wonderful" and worth every penny. There was the Primrose Terrace (the biggest in the world after the demise of the pink and white) The Artist's Palette, The Champagne Pool and the just plain ridiculous Devil's Bath and about 25 other pools, pots, caves and fumeroles. Also bubbling mud baths.
We were there for Four Hours!
After that we enjoined a quiet drive through beautiful scenery to Camp near Matamata - some of you reading will realise the implications of that!
Comments
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Yes it is worth the entrance fee.
I see you've included a photo from Tirau. We always stop in tin town whenever we go through it. I love all the structures. Particularly the ones you've shown, one if which is the I site, that's tourist information to us, the ram at the end is a recent addition certainly in the last three years, and those outside the church - shepherd and sheep. The garage one with legs sticking out of bonnet and the mouse and cheese which was on the deli store but noticed last year it's not a deli store any more.
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Interested to know why the water is so green? I assume it must be minerals in that location?
David
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The Ram at the end is a Merino wool shop and the other one is the public toilets - they got to be quite a theme on the holiday what with the Hunderwasser ones. The green pool is the Devil's Bath. It was right at the end of the 5 km circuit just when you thought there was nothing more to see. all the colours are caused by the mineral brought to the surface by the thermal activity and sometimes the bacteria feeding off them. All quite extraordinary and "Wonderful"!
Thank you for commenting, I've been encouraged to persist from behind the scenes but I didn't know if anyone was actually interested.
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Tabby
Its one of the flaws of the Story section that you have no idea how many people are reading the stories unless of course they either like or comment. It is an issue with which I have taken up with site Admin but I suspect it will be a long time before we see that sort of change so as you suggest it's difficult to judge how your efforts are being received.
I know Bakers2 has a family link to New Zealand so no doubt takes a particular special in stories about that country. It is most doubt fall that I will ever venture that far but it is always interesting where others go on their travels. Funnily enough a few years ago my son went to the New Zealand to attend a wedding of an old school chum. They hired a motorhome and toured both islands.So it's a reasonably small world!!!
David
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