Mud, geysers and sulfur

The Saturday was sooo hoooooooooot day-not sure if the weather got warmer or just the soil really heated up because of the fact that we arrived in the geothermal heart of the Northern Island! The Rotorua-Taupo region (Taupo Volcanic Zone) lies on the Pacific "Ring of fire", which marks in NZ the boundary between the Pacific and the India/Australia tectonic plates. In non-scientific words once around Rotorua (or afterwards on the thermal highway to the lake of Taupo) it smells like sulphur everywhere, one can see the rocks smoke and from time to time some geysers go up...

We visited the youngest geothermal area in the world (as they claimed it here), Waimangu. It was a 10-km-walk within a fern-rainforest sighting some impressive white silica terraces, bubling green-orange pools and steaming rocks. On the way to Lake Taupo we stopped in the Honey Factory "Bee Hive" where a delicious honey tasting took place, now we have 2 pots of New Zealand honey in the camper :)

The cicada above sings lovely and one can hear it almost everywhere in the forests in NZ.

The day before in Rotorua we were lucky to see the eruption of the Hoputu-geyser (after almost one hour wait). Half of day was spent in Te Puia, a Maori place in the middle of a geothermal area next to the city, incl. live Maori weaving and wood carving. We finally met the famous kiwi (the bird), which looks very cute, but can not fly. A nice stroll in the afternoon in the Government Garden in front of the BathHouse of Rotorua (looking for some shady place). The sun is (I do believe it now!) even worse than in Australia. Even if it gets fresh in the night, once the sun is out, its like burning and hitting at the same time. I never experienced sunshine that feels like a burn at 7.30 pm!

The Maori carver above is especially for Robert + Denise:)a pic from a real local...