Central North Island

25th
We set off from Rotarua heading south towards lake Taupo (NZ's largest lake created by an enormous volcanic eruption thousands of years ago). On the way we visited Orakei Korako, a fantastic thermal valley full of geysers and silica terraces. The hot waters flow down into a lake which has tepid waters and is full of eels and catfish.
You cross the lake in a small ferry to reach the active thermal area so it is quite an impressive entrance. The terraces are beautiful, covered in the green, orange and white slime that lines the waterways down which the hot, acidic water flows from the geysers. All this was set amongst some pristine native bush with fantastic tall fern trees framing the volcanic peaks beyond.
At the top of the site is an enormous cave (they are not sure how it formed)called the Ruatapu or sacred Cave, at the bottom of which is a crystal clear pool of aquamarine water - the mirror pool, Waiwhakaata, with bubbles emerging showing its hydrothermal activity. The guide leaflet that you carry with you states - be careful you may find yourself standing in the pool - and that is exactly what happened to Tris.... the water is so clear and still that it is impossible to see its edge and Tris just walked straight in!! Some of the rocks near the pool show mineral deposits in a beautiful array of colours. Perhaps the picture could be used in school and kids could try to judge what chemicals must be present in the water to make the blue, green, orange, white and black deposits.
Outside the cave are some more hot mud pools, this time rather than just one bubbling mass in each hole the pools were filled with numerous bubbles, so the bubbles weren't as big but it was all much more active, and the sounds excruciatingly delicious!
Then we drove further south to the outskirts of Taupo where the Huka falls crash over a 15ft spillway, 200,000 litres per second. The water comes from Lake Taupo and then squeezes through a 15m wide 10m deep gorge, it is an impressive sight and sound, with the immaculately clear turquoise water. Upstream of the falls we could see down into the water about 5m, it was just so clear - I've never seen anything like it. We took short walks up both sides of the river and stopped to eat blackberries under the trees and tree ferns.
After booking the trip that we will be going on tomorrow in Taupo we drove further south round the lake with impressive views across the lake and to the many volcanic peaks that make up this region. We stopped at several spots for Celso to try his luck with fishing (this area is meant to be the fishing capital of the north island) but his luck just wasn't in. We are camped at Ohakune, a small town in the skiing region of the north island.
We have seen some Kiwi signs so we will be listening out for them tonight.