Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Day 446: Lakes, Boiling Mud Pools, Geysers, Kiwi, and Sulphur

7 February, 2011

The very nice holiday continues... Highlights of the day:

a) The drive from Waitomo Caves village to Rotorua via Taupo giving us a long, extended view of the tranquil Lake Taupo.
b) The blanketing sulphur smell over the town of Rotorua thanks to the high geothermal activity in the area. I am not a fan of the sulphur smell, but it is quite facinating that such a phenomenon occurs! And it is super weird to see smoke coming off the ground in different parts of the town!
c) The visit to the Te Puia geothermal park where, for the first time in my life, I saw natural pools of boiling mud and three amazing geysers that spurt hot water out like tall fountains every hour or so! Super freaky phenomenon, if you ask me.
d) Seeing the Kiwi bird for the first time. It is so adorably cute! But I must say it had the mannerisms of a rat than that of a penguin!

554 more to go.

4 comments:

  1. There are similar sulphur emitting hot springs in Kashmir, I took a bath in one of those thermal springs...weird white residue gets left on the skin afterwards which I washed away with soap.

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  2. Yeah... I didn't realize hot springs actually had water sprouting out like that. The ones here were shooting up to some 15 meters! Apparently there was the 8th wonder of the world here - the white and pink terraces which were formed from the sulphur residues like what you experienced. But they were completely destroyed in an earthquake a 100 years ago. So know you can see smaller white terraces. We didn't take a bath but! :)

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  3. Am enjoying this concise travelogue :)

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  4. :P concise thanks to my extreme laziness! :D

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