Central North Island New Zealand

We had all showered on Friday evening to remove the minerals from Kerosene Creek, but Susan and Wesley wanted to get our money's worth from our luxury digs, so they went at 7 am to the Spa Park hot springs right in Taupo and took a second shower to remove the new mineral deposits.  The spring is in a city park, so no entrance fee.  We were hoping for a nice sunrise, but it was quite foggy/cloudy (although it cleared nicely as the day progressed).  The spring is up the hill from the banks of the Waikato River, but is too hot to get into if you go too far up stream.  The last pool before the river was the one used and the river itself is warmed considerably near the shore.

Susan and Wesley in the Spa Park hot springs.

Where the hot springs enters the Waikato River.  The water is warm to tepid to cool as you go farther out into the river.

After the showers, we backtracked a bit to first visit Huka Falls.  It's more of a cascade than a true falls, but is quite impressive nonetheless.  The Waikato River narrows from about 50 m wide to only 15 m for this short segment, so the water velocity is quite high.  A really good kayaker might be able to negotiate this section, but it would certainly be  a challenge. This is one of the "must sees" for every foreign tourist on a commercial tour, so we got to share this spot with several tour buses full of our contemporaries (i.e., old  people).

Huka Falls looking downstream from the bridge.

Susan at the downstream end of the falls.

We next went a bit farther back toward Rotorua to see the Craters of the Moon.  This is a large thermal field with multiple vents, mud pools, craters, etc., that gives an other-worldly vibe  It's interesting that this thermal area only became active and started to expand after the first geothermal power plant was opening in 1958.  The two immediately noticeable results of this power plant were 1)  the extinguishing of nearby geyser activity (for example, a place previously called Geyser Valley had to be renamed to Thermal Valley) and 2) an increase of vents and other thermal activity at Craters of the Moon and other locations.  We spent about an hour and a half wandering about in what would appear to be the smoldering remains of a grass or forest fire, but was, in fact, simply steam venting.

A steaming vent at Craters of the Moon.  Photos were sometimes difficult because visibility was low.

General view showing the smoldering-fire effect and indicating the scale of the place.

We then headed into town to meet Wesley's friends Anne and Mike Godfrey for lunch.  We had some time before our scheduled meet, so Susan and I wandered through a farmer's/arts/crafts market.  We bought a turned honey dipper from a guy who unsolicited told us to go home and do something about our president (a not uncommon reaction when meeting folks here).  Anyway, we had a very pleasant lunch with a view out over Lake Taupo, watching paragliders, sea planes and water skiers pass by.  I haven't mentioned the lake because we didn't really interact with it at a personal level, but it is a beautiful setting with vivid blue water surrounded by volcanic peaks with some high enough to have snow at the top.

Lake Taupo from our lunch spot showing a parasail and the snow-topped  mountains in the background.

Susan by Lake Taupo after leaving the tourist mayhem in the city of Taupo.

After lunch we headed west to the other end of the lake (about 40 km) and stopped at Tokaanu Thermal Pools.  The pools themselves were not remarkable after others we have seen, but on is hot enough to cook with and Susan wanted to try it out by boiling and egg suspended in the pool in a sock.  She held it there for 12 minutes and claims that the egg was perfect.  While on her hands and knees holding her sock, a high school group came by, became captivated and waited until the egg was done before they left.  (I suspect they stayed longer than was scheduled for the stop, but at least they saw a crazy Yank boil and egg!)

Susan hanging her sock with egg in the hot pool.

Successfully opening and eating her finished egg--cooked "perfectly" according to her.

At this point, we saw a motel with a vacancy across the street and took a room there for the night instead of  proceeding a bit farther as planned.  This opened up the possibility of visiting Tongariro National Park, about 40 km south and having a confirmed room waiting for us if we got back late.  The approach to the park was not so impressive as it was rather flat though lava flows and fields of rubble, but in the distance were several higher peaks, including the snow-topped mountain we saw from Taupo, Mt. Ruapehu. We turned off the highway to  Whakapapa Village, at the base of the mountain (elev ~1000 m).  It is a somewhat typical ski village with a large hotel and several other lodging options.  However, it is still 6 km from the ski lifts, so we drove on up to take a look.  At the base of the Whakapapa ski field, we were at about 2000 m, and took a short walk to a nearby ridge.  From there we could see Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings Mordor movie) and the locale of some of the shooting for the movie.  The slopes at this point (and up as far as we could see) were extremely rough and rocky--they really need a deep base to ensure that skis don't scrape on  rocks.  On the way back down, we got a meal at Whakapapa Village and then took a couple of short walks on the way out of the park.

Chateau Tongariro Hotel with Mt. Ruapehu.

At the ski area showing how rugged the terrain is.  They were running the lift for hikers to get to higher elevations.

From the ski area looking across the "Mt. Doom."

Tawhai Falls, a short walk we took on the way  out of the park.

Another walk we took on the way out was an overlook of several mounds creeated by a rubble sllide about 12000 years ago.

The motel we chose, due to it's location near the springs, offered bath house with heated mineral and clear water, so Susan and I were able to have one last soak before we head north tomorrow and leave the thermal area of the island.  Hopefully this mineral water has cured whatever ails me--but I'm sure my memory is too much to hope for!
On the road the next morning we headed west to Taumarunui then turned northward towards someplace north of Auckland.  This was a day to make mileage (or  kilometerage?  Metrification doesn't seem to work well here!), but there were a couple of stops we managed along the way, both of them cost-free to help out the budget.
The first was at Omaru Falls, about 50 km north of Taumarunui.  At the end of a 1.8 km track was a beautiful, 40-m high waterfall--probably the highest we've seen on the trip (at least the highest with water flowing!).  What I enjoyed most about this stop, however, was the walk to get there--it was very surprising.  It started with crossing a couple of fences with styles, then walking along a very sedate, somewhat muddy creek that appeared to be barely flowing between the sheep pastures.  After a short time, we plunged into a rain forest environment with cool shade and lots of birds (but the sound of baaing sheep stayed in the background).  In a bit, the creek started to gurgle and show signs of life, then at about 1 km, there was a sharp turn and we were crossing the creek (now probably 12-15 m wide) on a swinging cable bridge.  After crossing, we were back beside pastures for a while when a real (though small), 1-m waterfall appeared.  A bit farther, we could see the creek disappear over a precipice ahead, although to this point there was no hint of anything more than a slight drop and the entire track was very flat.  In another 200 m, with a view of the creek hidden by vegetation, we suddenly are at the view point and can see the full 40 m of the falls dropping into a narrow canyon.

Crossing the fence on a style on the way to Omaru Falls.

Susan on the swinging bridge over the creek.

Arrival near the falls.

Susan at the viewpoint of the falls.

Our other stop was at the Ruakuri Tunnels track at Waitoma, near Te Kuiti.  Waitoma is another of those very commercial spots with cave tours of various kinds, tubing, rafting, etc.  We drove past all of that to the public reserve and walked about an hour through a fascinating landscape of caves, underground rivers, natural tunnels and (if we'd been there after dark) glowworms.  In addition, it was in a very lush forest in a narrow canyon with nearly vertical walls.

We then made a beeline north, but got snarled in some traffic (reinforcing our first impression of NZ traffic being worse than Australia--although to be fair, we did avoid driving in cities to a large extent).  Another observation that become obvious as we drove is that New Zealand has incredible diversity (landscape, geology, flora, etc.) within very small areas--within a 50-km radius, you can see English countryside, Alpine pastures, above-the-tree-line volcanoes, commercial logging operations, pristine lakes, steaming springs, ...  I can't imagine anyplace with more variety closer together.  The traffic, of course, delayed our arrival into Warkworth, our ultimate goal for the day, until almost 6 pm.  The information office, of course, was closed, but worse, had no practical info posted (such as  a town map).  We managed to find the listing for one motel and knew about where it was, but missed it as we drove past.  After that, we made a wrong turn heading out of town towards the coast.  For about 4 km, the traffic against us (heading back to Warkworth) was bumper-to-bumper/stop-and-go and since we couldn't turn around (and didn't really want to), we went farther on till the traffic lightened.  Nearing the town of Snells Beach, we saw a sign advertising a vacancy and turned in.  It turns out it was not a motel, but simply a couple with a room to rent out.  It is in a steel, garage-type building, not looking like much from the outside, but very nice inside, and situated in a beautiful garden with fruit trees and hundreds of Monarch butterflies.  (Not sure where the butterflies came from as they are North American, but they are definitely here.)  In fact, we not only decided to stay, we booked it for next Wed, the night before our flight home, so we can be within easy reach of the airport.

Twilight view from the deck of our room in Snells Beach.