Geothermal Explorers

 We have entered volcano territory! The North Island of New Zealand is bursting with geothermal activity. Stuart and I visited the 'Craters of the Moon' walk while in Taupo. The craters give off steam that has built up below ground from the intense magma temperatures, and creates bubbling pools of mud on the surface. Look a bit too close and it's a case of 'steamy windows' lol.

We also went an hour long walk to find then take a dip in natural hot stream pools at Spa Park in Taupo. It was actually a lot hotter than I was expecting, too hot for me to stay in for very long but Stuart loved it. Climbing over the rocks in barefoot and feeling the slime and dirt at the bottom of the pools was a bit creepy too!!

We also drove to see the massive Huka Falls. They are created by the massive river upstream being forced into a very narrow but very deep crack before exiting on the other side. They are extremely dangerous and no one has been down them, but that didn't stop me having to hold back Stuart wanting to go down them in a canoe! :-)

A geothermal adventure would not be complete without visiting some active volcanoes. In Tongariro National Park they have three......which they use as ski resorts! These volcanoes are all active, the last eruption being in 2007. The single cone volcano was used as the setting for Mordor in the Lord of the Rings movies. We spent the night in a campsite beneath the volcanoes. There were no eruptions luckily, but the smaller of the three was giving off a lot of steam.

It was quite cloudy when we were sleeping there so we didn't have a fantastic view, but a few days later after travelling north we had a pretty awesome clear view from a distance.