Waimangu Volcanic Valley, NZ, Feb 09
After a leisurely brekkie Janet & I said good bye to our lovely hosts and headed for Waimangu National Park as it'd been highly recommended to her by someone who'd done it previously, she felt it would be my kind of place - lots of lush valleys.
The view from the car park alone was amazing... lots and lots of fern trees (my fav ones here) and the highlights sounded promising. We got on the shuttle bus to the very end of the park, about 4kms away from the main entrance and coffee shop (where they even sell organic coca cola !) and strolled back, mostly by a steaming stream and just enjoyed the amazing geological land. We both felt that it probably was the nicest thermal park of all. They have about 25 spots of interests but the two that really took our breath away was a perfectly round and turquoise lake (only of a shimmering blue colour when it had the right amount of rain in it, so we were really lucky) and another area called the Cathedral Rock, that looked like an eerie fantasy land and led onto a huge steaming lake - SO atmospheric. Cathedral Rock just didn't look real, mainly because of the steam in the foreground coming out of the yellow and orange earth and its shallow streams... Janet then told me that a scene from Lord of the Rings was shot here, and it didn't surprise me at all.
It took us about 1h45 to complete the loop (i.e. what was roughly estimated by the boards outside - strangely). It was a beautiful day and we both felt euphoric for it. One of those days that I will always remember. The only thing that spoilt it a bit was that I was really poorly all day and couldn't keep anything down (not even a biscuit) and Janet's sandal broke and someone stepped on her glasses (that we'd left on a ground by her bag as she was taking a photo). But outside that, it was fully enjoyable and I'd highly recommend this park to anyone going to Roturura. It really appealed to my sense of adventure and exotism and was hugely photogenic, as my many photos will show. Between us I'm sure we've already taken 1,000+ shots.
In the afternoon, we just went back to Rainbow Springs to see a kiwi one more time and see the crystal clear pools by day but we kind of had to rush through it as we had a plane to catch and so it wasn't as leisurely as we would have liked. It cost $28 to get in Waimangu and $25 for Rainbow Springs and Waimangu was probably much better value for money- minus the cute kiwis. Money does go VERY fast here, much faster than I expected. Sigh, sigh...
We then got to the airport, flew from Rotorura to Wellington and then onto Nelson... The view from the air, over Abel Tasman National Park was one of the nicest arial views I'd ever seen. Hundreds of small islands dotted on a silver sea... very very nice. Pity I wasn't feeling 100% still and couldn't quite enjoy it...
After a leisurely brekkie Janet & I said good bye to our lovely hosts and headed for Waimangu National Park as it'd been highly recommended to her by someone who'd done it previously, she felt it would be my kind of place - lots of lush valleys.
The view from the car park alone was amazing... lots and lots of fern trees (my fav ones here) and the highlights sounded promising. We got on the shuttle bus to the very end of the park, about 4kms away from the main entrance and coffee shop (where they even sell organic coca cola !) and strolled back, mostly by a steaming stream and just enjoyed the amazing geological land. We both felt that it probably was the nicest thermal park of all. They have about 25 spots of interests but the two that really took our breath away was a perfectly round and turquoise lake (only of a shimmering blue colour when it had the right amount of rain in it, so we were really lucky) and another area called the Cathedral Rock, that looked like an eerie fantasy land and led onto a huge steaming lake - SO atmospheric. Cathedral Rock just didn't look real, mainly because of the steam in the foreground coming out of the yellow and orange earth and its shallow streams... Janet then told me that a scene from Lord of the Rings was shot here, and it didn't surprise me at all.
It took us about 1h45 to complete the loop (i.e. what was roughly estimated by the boards outside - strangely). It was a beautiful day and we both felt euphoric for it. One of those days that I will always remember. The only thing that spoilt it a bit was that I was really poorly all day and couldn't keep anything down (not even a biscuit) and Janet's sandal broke and someone stepped on her glasses (that we'd left on a ground by her bag as she was taking a photo). But outside that, it was fully enjoyable and I'd highly recommend this park to anyone going to Roturura. It really appealed to my sense of adventure and exotism and was hugely photogenic, as my many photos will show. Between us I'm sure we've already taken 1,000+ shots.
In the afternoon, we just went back to Rainbow Springs to see a kiwi one more time and see the crystal clear pools by day but we kind of had to rush through it as we had a plane to catch and so it wasn't as leisurely as we would have liked. It cost $28 to get in Waimangu and $25 for Rainbow Springs and Waimangu was probably much better value for money- minus the cute kiwis. Money does go VERY fast here, much faster than I expected. Sigh, sigh...
We then got to the airport, flew from Rotorura to Wellington and then onto Nelson... The view from the air, over Abel Tasman National Park was one of the nicest arial views I'd ever seen. Hundreds of small islands dotted on a silver sea... very very nice. Pity I wasn't feeling 100% still and couldn't quite enjoy it...
posted by Sylvie at 12:01 AM
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