Huka Falls sits just above the town of Lake Taupo. While not the highest falls, it certainly is very powerful. Basically the river passes through a very narrow channel which creates the falls. Beautiful colour due to the mineral concentration from the volcanic soil in the area.
New Zealand is basically a huge range of volcanos and has many caves . Waitomo Caves are probably the best known as they have a huge colony of glow worms. The caves were discovered in the late 1880's and have been a top tourist spot ever since. This is the opening of the caves. Pictures were not allowed so sorry there are no glow worms to view- but it was very mystical inside. You travel through in a boat and they ask for total silence while in the caves.
Lake Taupo is the largest and deepest lake in NZ. It is larger than Singapore! It is surrounded by a ring of extinct and active volcanoes and is in fact a crater that was formed by one of the largest eruptions in history. Ash from this volcano has been discovered in ice samplings as far away as Greenland! This is the start of the geothermal area of NZ, so lots of steam vents and boiling mud can be found near by.
This black swan seemed to follow me around the lake on my walks or sitting on the shore. Time to say good bye !
The Bath House at Rotorua.
Rotorua is the heart of the geothermal area of NZ . Over 500 springs from cold water to boiling hot. High sulpher concentration means the town suffers from the smell of rotten eggs! The above builiding was the original bath house but is now the town Museum. very beautiful inside in the grand English country house style. Visitors have been coming to this area since the mid 1800's to take the "cure" of the mineral spas.
As I arrived here last night I just had time to go through the museum and then head to the spa house next door. Had a soak in the sulpher for about 20 minutes while looking out over Lake Rotorua.
Today I am going to view the geysers and steam parks, view the buried maori village and do some shopping. I will be driving back up to Auckland this evening.
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