Sacred Waters and Glowworms

After “extreme” day we decided to explore the other attractions of Rotorua. Being known as the thermal wonderland of New Zealand we couldn’t pass up a trip to Wai-O-Tapu. It is home to the largest area of surface thermal activity of any hydrothermal system in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. Its sights and smells didn’t disappoint with the Lady Know geyser gushing to almost 20m and hydrogen sulfide burning throughout the park.

The Lady Knox geyser sounded impressive erupting like clockwork every day at 10:15am; however, they left out the little detail that they induce the eruption manually. Afterwards we walked around the rest of the thermal wonderland; the Champagne Pool was a highlight boiling at over 74C with a bright orange rim (due to the antimony boiling up) around the edges as well as the many other brightly colored pools due to the different minerals in the ground.

After inhaling as much hydrogen sulfide as we could we headed towards Waitomo home to numerous glowworm caves. We joined a Spellbound tour that took us through the caves filmed by Sir David Attenborough in the “Planet Earth” series. We were surrounded by thousands of luminescent blue specks as our raft traveled deeper inside the cave. It’s amazing how bright these little worms made the cave (although not bright enough for any pictures); however, you can check out their website for some amazing views of these creatures (http://www.glowworm.co.nz/).