Rotorua was the first place where we camped on our first trip to New Zealand two years ago. It was where we fell in love with the amazing nature and people of New Zealand, so we were happy to come back again and visit some places we missed the first time around.
We stayed at a campground in town on our first night, and spent the next morning visiting the shopping area and lake front. Sophie was looking for a New Zealand Pounamu Jade necklace in the shape of a Koru. The Koru’s circular and spiral shape is based on the structure of the unfurling native New Zealand silver fern frond she likes so much.
Like the previous time we were in Rotorua, the trees were just starting to turn fall colors. We decided to eat lunch at a cute little cafe before going hiking in the afternoon. I had one of the largest hamburgers I have ever been served, and Sophie enjoyed New Zealand surf and turf. Awesome lunch!
We then headed south of town to hike up Maungakakaramea (or Rainbow mountain). This mountain had significance and history for the Māori people. The hike was about four miles long and passed by a pretty blue/green crater lake. It got its name because of the reddish colors showing in its volcanic soil and cliffs. The mountain still has volcanic activity – we could smell sulfur in some places, and I noticed that the ground was actually warm in other places where only certain low plants grew. The views at the top were worth the hike up and we could see the windy road we had taken to get there. It was fun to be hiking again!
After the hike, we drove a short distance to nearby Kerosene creek, a thermal stream cascading through a beautiful forest. I joined several others in jumping in the rocky stream and finding little waterfalls here and there to sit under and let the hot water flow by. The water temp was about like a warm bath, but it did have a little bit of smell and a brown color due to minerals and sediment. Sophie decided to pass.
We stayed at a nearby remote campground called Waikite Valley Hot Pools. It was actually more of a hot springs complex that just happened to offer camping spots. It was fantastic – probably our favorite camping spot to date. It was built on the most prolific hot water spring in New Zealand – spouting out 40 to 50 liters of boiling water per second! They made a little path where you could see the spring bubbling out of the ground. The surrounding grounds were loaded with vegetation and so beautiful.
As a perk of camping there, we got to use the facilities, which consisted of about a half dozen different hot pools. The constant supply of fresh water entering the pools had been cooled down from 98 Celsius (208F) to a 30 to 35 degrees Celsius range (86 to 95 F) exiting the hot springs, a very pleasant bath temperature. Because it was late in the day, very few people were there – mostly just the other campers. We enjoyed talking with people from France, Austria and other parts of the world while soaking in the relaxing pools. What a great way to end our day after hiking!
The next morning we went to a nearby thermal geo-park called Wai-O-Tapu. It had a geyser that went off each morning around 10AM called Lady Knox Geyser. It was a little gimmicky as the geyser was actually primed by pouring a bag of natural soap into it, which caused the thermal reaction. It did spout up about 50 feet, but I couldn’t help thinking it was kind of like a kid’s science fair project. And unfortunately, the steam completely shrouded the water spout so it was hard to get a picture of it.
The rest of the park, however, was very interesting. Wai-O-Tapu is located in the Taupō Volcanic Zone, one of the most active volcanic areas in the world, and on the edge of the largest caldera in the southern hemisphere. We saw lots of boiling lakes, craters (fun fact, sounds recorded in some of them were featured in the Lord of the Ring trilogy), bubbling mud pools filled with unrefined crude oil, and strange geological features, like the Champagne Pool.
The Champagne Pool is the largest hot spring in New Zealand measuring 65 meters in diameter and 62 meters deep, with a temperature of 74 degrees Celsius (165F). The bubbles caused by carbon dioxide provide the champagne like effect in the water. It was formed about 700 years ago by a hydrothermal eruption. The orange rim around the edges of the Champagne Pool contains the minerals arsenic and antimony sulphuric, both compounds very rich in silver and gold, and other minerals.
Even if we preferred our exploration of Waimangu two years ago, we still enjoyed discovering Wai-O-Tapu. We ate a picnic lunch overlooking the grounds afterwards, before heading southeast across a mountain range to the Napier coast.
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