This morning we got a little bit of a sleep in relative to
the rest of the trip however we we still rolling by 7:30 am. Tom and Amy had booked a tour out Hobitown
which is the movie set for the Lord of the Rings series and the Hobit series of
movies. Agnes and I were planning a trip
out to Wau-o-tupa to see the geothermal geysers and other such smelly things.
I helped load tom and Amy’s luggage as their trip was the
first one out and then helped get our stuff organized. After a breakfast sandwich at Dunkin Donuts
Agnes and I were off to see the geothermal sites.
There is one main geyser at Wau-o-tapu which is called Her
Lady Knox and it erupts once a day at 10:15 am.
So we had to hurray but made it in plenty of time. We were wondering how they knew when it was
going to erupt to such precision and were thinking they must somehow trigger it. Sure enough at the appointed time a park
guide came out gave a little talk and then added a surface surfactant (soap) to
the throat of the geyser and a few minutes later it erupted. Old Faithful and all of the Yellow Stone
geysers just erupt without any assistance so kind of a cheat. However it was quite spectacular never the
less as there quite a large plume of water which went about 20-30 meters in the
air. After the geyser show we wandered
around the rest of the geothermal area viewing various bubbling mud pots, steam
vents, Sulphur pits and other smelling things.
It was quite fantastic to think you were walking on what could be a huge
volcano.
We then hurried back to Rotorua to meet up with tom and Amy for
the drive down to Auckland. It turned
out to be much further than anyone had anticitpated as it didn’t look that far
on the map. Then the last 15 kms into town were on a freeway which was totally
gridlocked. After circling the block a
couple of times and some miss cues Amy’s phone came to the rescue and we were
into the hotel driveway. We were all
glad to be here amd happily handed the car off to the valet.
For supper we headed down to the wharfs which are right
below the hotel. It was a beautiful
setting and we all ordered the national New Zealand dish “Fushenchups” (fish and chips). The fish was very fresh and tasty. I have always like fushenchups but have never
eaten it so often. Tom and Amy are on
the plane tomorrow and it was a great way to wind up our time together.
Terry
1 comment:
What an adventure! You guys are sure enjoying the sights and sunshine. Rotorua was our favorite town - so much so we spent four days there. Enjoy the flight home where you traverse through a wormhole and manage to arrive home before you takeoff. We sure enjoyed the tales and great pictures.
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