Walking In a Thermal Wonderland

22 February 2010
A short way south of Rotorua is another geothermal area called the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland; refusing to be put off by the name we spent a morning walking around the wonderland. It all kicks off at 10.15 each day when the Lady Knox Geyser shoots about 10m in the air – it’s 10.15 every day not because of some precise geothermal clock but because a guy puts flakes of soap in the geyser spout at that time every day! It has something to do with reducing the surface tension of the cold water that resides above the superheated water well below ground, once that is removed the hot water gushes forth for about an hour. Without the soap flakes the geyser would gush unpredictably about every 12 to 24 hours and that really wouldn’t be a crowd-puller. Putting that to one side the rest of the area is very interesting with a path that meanders through a series of small lakes of boiling water that have taken on the colours of the minerals dissolved in them, manganese purple, sulphur yellow, green antimony etc. There are a number of volcanic craters, some formed by eruptions some by the collapse of the thin crust into the heaving mud chasms below; sulphur caves and graphite ponds (a.k.a The Devil’s Inkwell). There are two quite spectacular features: the Artist’s Palette pools – a panorama of hot and cold pools and steaming fumaroles, each bringing a different colour to the area; and the Champagne Pool, a circular blue-green fifth of a hectare cauldron of bubbling hissing water, wreathed in swirls of steam with a beautiful ochre-coloured petrified edge, the water below the pool is heated to a phenomenal 230C; where the water leaves the pool it creates beautiful silica rippled patterns. There were also the inevitable pools of boiling mud with their very satisfying sounds which one little French girl we came across called “petite ploop-ploop”, a good description but we thought it sounded more like when Gregg makes polenta, without the swear words as it bubbles up and burns his hand.
We then went on to Huka Falls where the full flow of the Waikato River (one of NZ most voluminous at 400tonnes of water per second) funnels into a narrow gorge and thunders over rocks creating a maelstrom of whirlpools and eddies. The waters are used to cool the nearby Wairaki geothermal power station. When this was first inaugurated a use for the still-warm water from the power station was sought and someone came up with the idea of farming tropical prawns. It is possible to visit the farm (but we didn’t) and learn about a day in the life of “Shawn the Prawn” and at the end of the tour feast upon Shawn’s rellies! We had a cheese and avocado salad picnic and some different but equally delicious plums – these were yellow, very juicy and the variety is called Omega.
Forgot to mention on a previous blog that Rotorua has a “European-style Bistro” called Lewisham – we didn’t have the heart to tell them.