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October 8, 2009 - Rotorua, Waitapu, and Tongariro
Woke up at 8:22 this morning, then showered. We headed down to the included breakfast buffet. It was awesome! A couple of interesting items, there was fried, battered fish on the buffet, cloudy apple juice (looks more like pear juice to me), and 'kidneys' which looked like mushrooms to me, but there were mushrooms in another container... And of course kiwi!
We packed up and left about 10:30. Before checking out, we looked at the sulphur flats/bird sanctuary behind our hotel:
There were hundreds of birds! You should have heard them all! And the warm springs made sure there were plenty of insects around to eat.
And I always try to take pictures of unusual flora.
We drove about 30 kilometers, then stopped to visit Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. I took a bunch of pictures here, but not many showed up well, so go check out the website. We spent a couple of hours on the walk here and we enjoyed seeing and learning about this active geothermal area which was full of bubbling mud pits, water that was 212 degrees, and the beautifully colored pools (colored by minerals). Out of the photos I took, some of the best were ones of the kids. Jack would race ahead to a bench, sit down and pretend to be a statue, then Katrina would come along and strike a pose with the statue. Those pictures and a few others are below.
One of the local birds. This little guy was in the parking lot and only about a foot away from where Katrina was sitting.
Another friendly bird.
A beautiful flower. Looks like a rose, but not much scent.
A steaming stream!
Beautiful water.
Looks like paradise, but don't be fooled...all the water in this park is either exceedingly hot or acidic!
Boiling water.
The steam from the champagne pool was so thick, that you couldn't see a person standing three feet away!
This is a photo of the Devil's Bath....Think it is time for him to change the water!
Statue shot number 1
Statue shot number 2
Statue Shot number 3 - really, we are feeding the children here!
Statue Shot number 4.
After a visit to the souvenir shop, we got back on the road. We were headed to the Whakapapa Village where the Chateau Tongariro rests on Mount Ruahepu.
Unfortunately, weather was moving in and we couldn't see much of anything. The mountain/volcano behind the Chateau was hidden in fog and clouds. Daniel and Jack had to cancel their planned hike on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing because of the weather. Snow was expected overnight along with gale force winds. Ice equipment was required to take the hike. It just wasn't good conditions for people not used to that kind of situation. Daniel was really bummed.
We got checked into this beautiful and historic Chateau. We had a family room. It was a bit...shall we say cramped? But, considering this building is over 80 years old, and that most people who come spend their free time hanging out in the very beautiful lobby, it wasn't surprising. We told them at least it was bigger than a room we shared in France with Bruce and Charles (they had to climb over our bed to get into theirs).
We had stopped at Burger King for the kids around 4:30. So Daniel and I made reservations in the Ruahepu Dining Room. We had to get out dress clothes to go. The dining room was beautiful and elegant and the food was amazing (I have a video of the Chateau which I hope to share sometime). I honestly thought my tongue had tied and gone to heaven! After dinner, Daniel and I walked through the lobby a bit. The plush chairs, piano player, snooker table, fireplaces, library, tables for chess/checkers and backgammon were all welcoming and designed to please the guests.
