Steam, streams and ice-creams

Steam, streams and ice-creams

As a change from driving north, we set off in the morning on SH5 towards the south.

This whole area is a hot-spot (see what I done there) of geothermal activity – which basically means that you see columns of steam coming out of the ground at random places and everywhere smells!  Driving along SH5, at one point we couldn’t decide if we were driving through fog, low cloud or steam.

Our first stop of the morning was for a circular walk in Wairakei Natural Thermal Valley, an active geothermal area.  Armed with a map and a “laser thermometer” (so we could find the temperature of the rock without burning our hands), we left the café through the back door and found ourselves in an enchanted valley with a stream and steam.  There are some wooden bridges along the way, but most of it is natural and the ground actually feels quite spongy.

They’ve named various features; among other things, we saw the witch’s cauldron, the devil’s throat and the dragon’s mouth.  We also followed a sign to the singing cliff; we didn’t see him, but we did find a wall that whistles and hisses!

The owner also keeps a variety of birds and animals in the grounds, including an untidy chicken, llamas and peacocks.

A little further down the road, we came to Huka Falls, where the Waikato River narrows from 100 metres wide to 15 metres.  This makes for a very noisy and powerful set of rapids.  You can view them close up from a boat or at a distance from a helicopter.  We chose to walk over the bridge!

The water in the Waikato River comes from Lake Taupo, NZ’s largest lake, and that was our next destination.  We checked in to the Great Lake Taupo Holiday Park and then set off to walk the 2km to the delightfully named Acacia Bay.  From where we could get down to the lake itself to admire the view and enjoy our ice creams.

This morning we were back on SH1 heading north again for Hamilton, NZ’s fourth largest city.  The approach to the city is very green, with trees and parks lining the road.  The centre, while the roads are quite wide, is very busy and parking for a motorhome is limited.  As it was raining heavily again, we paid a quick visit to Hamilton Gardens and then headed for our camp site to wait out the weather.