We slept great, as usual, in our campervan. We expected to be up early but instead slept in. We left the campground for Lake Taupo around 9. Lake Taupo is an hour south of Blue Lake and it occupies the caldera of the Taupo volcano. The whole area is known for its geothermal activity.
We arrived in the town of Taupo, parked, and went to a coffee shop for breakfast. At the coffee shop we asked about a bakery and went there to get some bread. Then we went to the grocery store. Here’s the view of the lake from our parking area.
After we finished our shopping we went to Huka Flls. Compared with some of the falls we have seen they were not very impressive, but they manage to generate 15% of the power requirement for New Zealand. The falls have over 200,000 liters of water per sec barreling over an 11 meter high waterfall. Here are some pictures.
Next we went to the spa thermal park, a public park where you can relax in hot springs. We walked to the water and put our feet in the water. It was probably about 90F and very relaxing. There were quite a few other people there. Here is a picture.
Our last stop of the day was at Orakei Korakogeo thermal park and cave. Hot water (as hot as 175C) boils to the surface and when it cools to 100C is deposits silica which form sinter terraces. Sinter is rock that is formed over time by the deposition of silica from thermal water. Colorful algae grows in the water. It was very interesting. I imagined it looked like the earth billions of years ago when life was forming in the boiling oceans (In my imagination I had to overlook the plants growing along the water). It smelled faintly of sulfur. We walked along a walkway which lead us around the sinter and to a thermal cave and boiling mud pits (which really smelled of sulfur). It was unlike anything I’ve seen before. Here are pictures.
Here are a couple of videos so you can see and hear the boiling water.
We returned to the campground and I did some research on White Island while Rick cooked. Some people we talked to at the thermal park suggested we go to White Island, an active volcano 27km out in the Bay of Plenty.
After dinner I went to see the glowworms in the woods next to the campground. I just walked a little way in and they were everywhere. It was magical, like an enchanted forest with fairy lights. The lights are so small that my camera couldn’t pick them up so sorry.
Here is our route today.
