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Happiness Is The Road
We hit the road straight after brekky and hoped that the drivers would be less aggressive today. They were but only very slightly. We drove south from Mount Maunganui for about an hour to Rotorua which is famous for it's geothermal activity lying on top of the Rotorua caldera. The city air was sulphur rich and smelt of rotten eggs. Apart from the sulphur air and the small glimpses we got of steam billowing out of the ground Rotorua was a very ordinary place. We had a look at the lake, did some food shopping at Countdown and then we left. The area around Rotorua is extremely commercialised and the areas of thermal activity around the town are very expensive to visit so we decided to venture further out for our thermal adventures. We drove for another hour towards Taupo and stopped at Huka Falls on the way. We had a walk to the falls and watched as the water from New Zealand's longest river, the Waikato, slammed into a narrow chasm and dropped into a surging pool. After this we drove a short distance down the road to 'Craters of the Moon'. We had read that this is a lesser known geothermal area and we hoped this to be true. We had some lunch in the car park and then we went to see some steam. It was wonderfully quiet and we more or less had the place to ourselves which was brilliant. There was a boardwalk around all the craters which were spouting loads of steam. The view behind all this activity was of Taupo Lake and the mountains. It was an ethereal and strange but beautiful place. This area sprang to life as a result of some hydroelectric tinkering that created a nearby power station. When underground water levels fell and pressure shifted new steam vents sprang up. We had loads of fun on the walk around looking at all the steam vents and the mud pools that were bubbling away. The boardwalk meandered it's way around all the craters and then a path took us up a hill so we could view this amazing place from above. After this and with my glasses all nicely steam cleaned we headed the short distance to the camp site in Taupo. On the way we stopped at Taupo Bungy so I could see the place where I did a bungy jump 20 years ago. We watched some mad person hurl themselves off the cantilever platform that projects out from the cliff top over the Waikato River. There was going to be no repeat performance from me. Once is enough! The camp site was huge and we got a nice secluded spot away from everybody else and there was no picnic table in sight! The camp site had a big swimming pool and a hot thermal pool. We went for a swim and then sat relaxing in the hot thermal pool for ages. Absolute bliss. It had been a lovely day.
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