Rotorua Thermal Walk

I apologize for the delay in posting this week. I have had a busy week full of injury, illness, conflict (at work) and exhaustion. Fortunately, most of these things are either already getting better or should be doing so in the near future, so my outlook is positive.

As for today's post, this thermal walk was something of an accidental discovery, which makes it quite fun to look back on and appreciate.

Upon leaving Wairakei Terraces, and on our way to Lava Glass Studio (of which I posted pictures back in August), we saw a brown sign that said, "Thermal Walk." In NZ, brown signs mean tourist attractions or historically significant places. I said, "Want to check it out?" and Patty said, "Why not?" so we drove down this little dirt road off the highway, meandering through forests until we ended up at this charming little house.

Notice the fabulous water wheel with the huge fish jumping over it.

We went in and found a little cafe, where we ordered tea and hot chocolate. I overheard the two people working there speaking to each other in French, and was excited but a bit shy about engaging them in conversation in French. Patty solved this problem by asking a complicated question in rapid-fire English, resulting in a lack of comprehension that necessitated a French translator. That broke the ice quickly enough, since my hesitation was overruled by my desire to be helpful. So, I got to enjoy speaking in French for a while, and we found out the both the people working there were helpx-ers (doing voluntary work in exchange for room and board) like Patty, so there were connections all around. Happy ending for everyone.

Anyway, after a lovely hot drink and bilingual conversation, we headed out into the property owned by the family that operates the little cafe, which happens to be very geothermally active. Interestingly, I realized that it had not occurred to me that a person could own and live on land out of which poured mineral-rich steam from the centre of the earth. Given that I know that geothermal activity is a normal occurrence in Rotorua, and that everyday things like parks and businesses are right next to bubbling mud pools, it probably shouldn't have been a revelation for me, but it was.

Near the beginning of our walk, looking across a small river valley at where we'll be walking. All that steam! It was like a natural, outdoor sauna!

The owners provided us with this little gadget that reads the temperature (I suppose that's called a thermometer, but it doesn't fit my image of a thermometer, so I'm not calling it that). 

Standing outside the cafe, the air temperature was 17C (62.5F). Five minutes into the walk, the air temperature was 28C (82F). Crazy!

Notice all the neat colours. You may have noticed a lot of pictures of mine include particularly blue water surrounded by particularly red/orange rocks or foliage - for some reason I find that stunning!

Having been quite impressed by the 28C (82F) reading of a few minutes before, imagine my delight and awe when I held the gadget up to a steaming hole and it read 90C (194F)!!!! I had to position my hand very carefully so that the gadget was in the heat but I wasn't, as my skin seems to have a silly aversion to 90C (194F)!

This is called The Dragon's Mouth, and you can see why! It's such an interesting formation, because it is so clear that the rock was molten when it formed into that shape - crashing and breaking doesn't give you that kind of form.

As with so many NZ attractions, there was a lovely bush walk to enjoy. Very pleasant and blissfully cool after the heat of all that steam!

Moral of this story: It's nice to travel with flexible enough plans and travel-mates that you can turn off the road at a random brown sign and discover a lovely and adventurous way to spend an afternoon.