First stop was the local park which is full of volcanic steam springs and mud pools - surprisingly not smelly but very spooky to think they are in the middle of a public park.
Then on to Te Puia which is a Maori cultural centre but also a major geothermal park with plenty of mud pools and steam springs but the main feature is a couple of geysers which erupt about 15 times per day. We arrived just in time for the midday spout and it was dramatic - reaching up to 15 metres and continued erupting for more than 25 minutes.
From there it was on to Lake Taupo for a late lunch and then late arrival in Napier which is on Hawkes Bay - a famous wine making area on the east coast of the North Island. Napier was virtually flattened by an earthquake in 1931 and the city was rebuilt in the then trendy Art Deco style which still looks fantastic. We stayed in the very deco-style Fountain Court Motor Lodge. We'd had enough of eating out and had pizza delivered from "Hell Pizza".
Helen says:
if i c another mud pool it will b 2 soon. i saw so many today that smelt and were bubbling :-(. in the begining it was kl looking dwn bg holes 2 c mud that was bubbling rapidly by itself but as i saw more and more they got even worse and all the differnet smells made me feel sick.
we watched the geyser, that was amazing the water shot so far up in the air and there was soo much water that came out of the land i have no idea how much water is dwn there it jst kept cumin n cumin and with all the steam that was coming out of the ground aswel and agen ihav no idea where all te water was cumin from.
We drove dwn to Napier which was by the sea but still cld. there was some car thing going on so there were loadsa random rally cars round the place. We had a pizza in the motel which has 2 bedrooms and a kitchen living area and a bathroom whichlookd so scabby.
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| New Zealand 2007 pt 3 |
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