Taupo to Waitomo

The next day we carried on up the road to another two thermal areas. The first was WaiOTapu, which has the amazing Lady Knox geyser. The staff member pours a packet of soup flakes into the vent every morning, which breaks down the surface tension of the water, leading to an eruption. It was very spectacular, and slightly comic with it spewing soap bubbles before the main eruption. It erupts to about 10m.

We then explored the main area, with lots of furiously bubbling and extremely stinky mudpools - the worst were called the Devil's Inkpots. There were also some lovely rock formations, caused by despoits of minerals from the waters. The highlight of the area is the Champagne Pool, which is a huge hot pool (boiling in fact) ringed with beautiful hues from minerals and bacteria. Once we had finished, we carried on down the road to an extensive mud pool, which really was huge. Once we had had lunch we moved onto Waimangu Volcanic Valley. This was only formed in 1800-and something, when Mount Tarawera erupted. The eruption completely destroyed the famous pink and white terraces, and created whole new lakes and geysers. There was the world's largest geyser at Waimangu, but it last erupted decades ago. Whilst the formations weren't as spectacular as WaiOtapu, steam could be seen to be issuing from everywhere, including high up on mountain tops, so it was a very atmospheric area to walk through. We decided to do the hiking trail through it, which climbed for stupendous views over the area affected by the eruption. Once we had finished there we headed back down to Taupo to stay the night.

Climbing the slopes near active volcanoes was the highlight of the next day, which we spent in Tongariro National Park. The journey there was quite long, but very scenic via the Desert Road, with beautiful views of the snowy volcanoes of Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. We had a quick detour from the road to see the Tree Trunk Gorge, where the Mangawhero river is channelled through a narrow fissure far below. We started up the Ohakune Mountain Road to begin our walks. Unfortunately, the journey had taken longer than expected so we only had time for one walk. We chose to do the one to Waitonga falls, which was very strenuous. We climbed above the snow line, through thick forest, before emerging out onto the alpine boggy area with stunning views of Ruapehu. On our way up we could also see Mount Taranaki, which was many kilometres away so must have been huge! We were so lucky with the weather, which remained gloriously fine for ample photographic opportunities. The falls themselves would have been beautiful by UK standards, but they were ok by NZ standards! Once we were back on the road, we continued up to see the Mangawhero Falls, which plummet dramatically over an old lava flow. We continued on our way, reluctant to leave this beautiful park behind. We camped at Taramanui before moving onto Waitomo the next day.

We reached Waitomo in good time to begin our tour of the area. First up was the Waitomo glow worm caves, world famous and used by Saint David Attenborough in Life in the Undergrowth - we trod on hallowed ground!!!!! It was magical, with millions of tiny blue lights just above your head, before emerging out on the river into daylight.

Next we journeyed down the road to Ruakuri Natural tunnel. Here we walked along boardwalks that seemed to defy gravity by their positions stuck onto vertical rock faces. We walked over the Waitomo Stream (more of a river), and through small natural tunnels to our goal, where the river runs through a large tunnel out into the open. The region is known for its karst limestone, so the ground is literally a network of caves and rivers, with amazing rock formations. It cerainly was a brilliant walk, and with lots of glow worms along the way, we decided to come back later when it was dark to try and rival our caves experience.

Further along the road we came to Marokopa Falls, where via a slightly strenuous walk, we came out to an amazing sight. The now larger river plummets over a rock face, and is surrounded by lush rainforest. One of the most different falls we came across.

Going back along the road to Waitomo, where we would camp, we came to PiriPiri Caves, which are free to access via a short walk through native forest. Whilst we had brought a torch and wore our walking boots, the descent to the floor, where you can walk through to a room to see large fossil oysters, proved exceedingly treacherous, so we hastily abandoned that!

Our final port of call along the road was the Mangapahoe Natural Bridge. This was much like the Natural Tunnel in how it was formed, namely an underground river had had part of its roof collapse, only leaving one part to form a bridge. Walking under the bridge through the gorge was very scenic, again with glow worms present though not yet alight. We then set off on a short diversion through fields back to the carpark. These fields contained large limestone boulders with the fossilised oysters making up the bulk of them. These were huge, about the size, if not larger, than a hand!

We journeyed back to Ruakuri, but alas it was not dark enough for the glow worms, so we continued on back to the campsite in Waitomo.