Actually, despite the ridiculous name, Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland (Wonderland? What corporate honcho had that idea?) the geo-thermal park is quite well done and has none of the attributes a wonderland might bring to mind. We were anticipating skin scorching rides and puffy mascots like Sulphur Sam, but instead we get a well laid out track around collapsed craters, boiling pools of mud and steaming fumaroles.
At 10:15 a.m., everyone rushes out of the park, back to their cars and drives 5 minutes down the road to see The Jane Knox Geyser ejaculate right on cue. It helps that they add a little soap to get her going. We inquire if we can walk down to see the geyser and are firmly told no. Rushing tourists determined not to miss the spouting geyser have been known to run walkers down — it really is a wonderland!
After the big show, we continue our walk around the park. The area is associated with volcanic activity dating back 160,000 years and is located within the active Taupo Volcanic Zone. Highlights include the geysers, the bubbling mud, and all the natural colours in the rock and pools due to the different mineral elements. Lowlights include the stinky hydrogen sulphide which when you get a good whiff of, makes you feel a little queasy...
The nearby town of Rotorua is pretty much the geo-thermal centre of New Zealand and is apparently built on nothing more than hot air and water. Every lodge, motel and campsite advertises hot spring pools and mineral baths. The town doesn't stink of sulphur as much as the guidebooks make out. You get the occasional whiff driving in, and once in town, you can't help but notice the steaming geysers and bubbling mud all around that produce the rotten egg smell.
We hole up at a campsite just outside of town that has hot spring pools (of course) and it's not long after dinner before we're in them. A couple of glasses of good Hawke's Bay Cabernet/Merlot and a toasty mineral bath and you're ready for some shut eye. As Jenn said, walking back to the camper van, "My legs feel like jello." And we were out pretty quick.
We meet a gentleman in the hot spring pools who says we're staying in the "best campsite in all of NZ" because the pools are so good and the site is well priced. He regales us about all the deaths and burnings from the hot pools — like the Chinese boy who couldn't read the warning signs and tragically jumped into a boiling pool and received burns to 80% of his body. "That was just three or four weeks ago," he says. "He didn't make it."
Or the half dozen deaths a year that happen in the motels with hot spring pools. "They're not ventilated properly, you see? And people breathe in the fumes, pass out and then asphyxiate."
The locals know all the gory stuff.
-K
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