The Road to Taupo and Waitomo Thermal Wonderland
The next morning we gassed up the van, which was pretty good since it was the first time all trip. We said farewell to the stinky fart smelly town of Rotorua and headed south towards lake Taupo and it's little tourist town. One of the places we had heard about before even arriving in New Zealand was Waiotapu, the colored thermal pools of Rotorua.
As we were early leaving and interested in seeing the sights, we figured we'd stop on the way and catch the "Thermal Wonderland" as they call it. As we arrived, the parking attendants informed us that we were late and should drive directly to the geyser to catch the show before parking. We did so, and managed to hear the whole story and see the Lady Knox geyser.
The water under the surface of the ground is near boiling all the time, and once a day, right at 10:15 am, they add a surfactant to the geyser, reducing the surface tension of the water inside. When this happens, the boiling point lowers, the water turns to gas, and the geyser erupts. It's a pretty cool piece of chemistry, and the story about the miners who tried washing their clothes in the geyser, putting soap inside and causing it to erupt the first time is pretty fun, too.
The Waitomo park was pretty spectacular. There were lots of fun names for the pools in the park, most of which started with "Devil's" due to a lack of creativity and the overwhelming alien nature of the place. Some of the pools were just boiling mud, but some of them had chemicals in them that turned them various colors. Some of the colors were completely unreal. It was so cool to see.
Just outside the park, we took a quick detour to a boiling mud pool. It made amazing burbling noises and reminded Eli of the schmooze from the My Little Pony™ movie. My mistake. The second My Little Pony™ Movie.
When we checked into our hotel, the proprietor recommended a water park for kids that's all volcanically heated. We got into town early enough that we thought we could get the kids in and have a bunch of fun before the dinner madness set in. We headed to DeBrett's water park, got our swimsuits on, and played in a heated play structure fountaining water from all sides. We lounged in the heated pools, and just enjoyed the warm water. Some of the waterfalls into the tubs were too hot to touch, and those pools trickled into other pools, getting progressively cooler. It was really nice.
After a failed potty trip, a failure to pay, a successful trip to the ATM and a successful trip to a different potty, we waited an eternity for some local fancy burgers then finally headed home. We ate some dinner, got the kids ready for bed, and everyone promptly passed out. I think they might have been tired, I know I am.
We're relaxing in our hotel room now, all the kids are asleep (the baby in a real pack n play), and we're enjoying some quiet at the end of a very long, busy day. We're trying to decide on our activities tomorrow, and we're hoping to catch a pontoon plane ride around the lake if the weather is good.