February 26, 2014
We got an early start, heading down for the hotel’s breakfast which turned out to be a surprisingly nice buffet. Then it was time to head off to the day’s first attraction, one of the big geothermal parks. This one was called Wai-O-Tapu and featured walkways through bubbling mud pits and brightly-colored hot water pools. Its key feature, though, was the Lady Knox Geyser which shot up as high as 60 feet and erupted at 10:15 every morning. Since it was already 10am we decided to start there. We took a seat in the small amphitheater surrounding the geyser, before which the ranger would give a small informational talk.
You know those times in life when someone should know something they might not like; so you try to slide that tidbit of information by and hope they won’t take much notice? This was one of those times. I’d told Rich about the geyser we were about to see, but I didn’t mention that soap powder, poured in by a park ranger, creates the chemical reaction which causes the geyser to erupt on schedule.
As people finished getting seated and the talk was soon to begin, Rich remarked that it’s amazing how they know when the geyser is going to blow. I mentioned that well, they “help” it along, hoping to leave it at that. But no, Rich asked what I meant by that; so I casually told him they pour some soap powder in, hoping that would be that. Well, not so much–I might as well have just told a kid there’s no Santa Claus. Rich was surprised, then offended. I didn’t think of the geyser as anything less because a human helps it along—in fact the geyser goes off naturally about every 42 to 74 hours. Rich did not share my feelings on this, however, and proceeded to make fun of the whole thing in such a way that was actually pretty funny.
It’s a good thing it was funny, because his poking fun at this didn’t stop after the show. It went for our entire park visit, then the entire day, and then for days afterwards, then for all our subsequent travel for the rest of the season as he wondered whether I was taking him to another soap-powder geyser. Sigh. At the time I thought maybe I shouldn’t have told him, but the ranger made no secret of using the soap powder and described how it caused the chemical reaction.
The talk was interesting and the geyser was pretty impressive, shooting up to at least 30 or 40 feet as the crowed oohed and aahed. Below, some photos of Lady Knox Geyser, impressive whether or not it’s set off by soap powder. (Click any photo to enlarge.)
After the show, we headed back to the park’s main entrance (the geyser is actually down the road a bit from the park), hurrying to stay ahead of the crowd. In retrospect, we should have done the walk through the park counterclockwise (backwards) to get some distance from the other visitors, bunched up after the geyser show. I noticed that when this happens, people get competitive trying to stay ahead of each other; and many end up bypassing or blowing through key viewing areas in an effort to stay ahead. We, too, were competitive but if a viewing area was too busy, we simply waited a couple of minutes for spots to clear. It would be a shame to miss any of this park’s natural wonders because one wants to keep ahead of the Jones’s.
Aside from some bunch ups at the viewing areas, this park visit was pretty amazing. To walk the entire park takes about 1 1/2 hours minimum. Knowing some visitors don’t have the desire or stamina to do the entire walk, they’ve divided the walk into three looped segments. At first glance it seems pretty apparent that the first loop contains the most significant sights. The sights peter out on the second and third loops, but there was an intriguing jade lake and steaming waterfall at the far end. My guidebook stated it was enough to do the first loop, the rest of the sights unimportant. But we decided to at least do the second loop and maybe continue on to the lake.
The start of the first loop took us through series of large steam craters made colorful by the chemical reactions between the earth and the steam. It’s a rather surreal experience to feel the air, at times thick with steam and the odor of sulfur, yet see the interspersed bushes and trees growing as close as they dare. Over one crater, swallows build nests to take advantage of the natural warmth.
Below, photos from the first part of the walk…
We then arrived at the aptly-named Artists Palate, a small lake of steamy water awash with vibrant hues of yellow and orange, interspersed with luminous greens and blues. Continuing along we came to the Sinter Terraces, consisting of an elevated walkway above the silica-crusted ground interspersed with steaming hot pools. This part of the park was like New Zealand’s answer to America’s Yellowstone Park.
Continuing onto the second loop, the attractions (and the crowds) petered out for a time, but it was an interesting walk with a great viewing area overlooking the park. It was there that I spotted the furthest attraction at the far end of the park: Lake Ngakoro (aka the Green Lake). It had an amazing emerald color and since I’m a sucker for colorful water, it was then an easy decision to do the third loop and see that lake up close! We continued on past more pools, silica cliffs, and sulfury steaming craters. Below, some photos from loops 2 and 3 (including a photo of the green lake in the bottom right of the gallery below).
When we arrived at the Green Lake, we headed up to the overlook above it and then climbed up some rocks for the best view. Wow! The lake was a glowing emerald color surrounded by white limestone, truly an amazing sight and frankly, the highlight of this park for me. (I have to wonder if the writer of my guidebook actually walked out to look at this or just looked at a photo and decided it wasn’t worth the bother.) We also saw the steaming falls.
We made our way back to back, completing the third and second loops which treated us to a lovely bush walk and lots more watery, steamy stuff.
Picking up where we left off with the first loop, we came to one of the park’s star attractions: The Champagne pool. It’s a large pool with green water, a bright orange rim, blue smoke, and champagne-like bubbles, a bizarre and fantastical sight. Even more so was the next sight: the Devils Bath. Its a sunken pool of glowing yellow-green water surrounded by white rock walls, like a psychedelic swimming hole but very acidic so only for devils, not humans. We waited here for the sun to come out from behind some clouds to photograph the water at it’s most vivid.
Below, photos of the Champagne Pool and Devil’s Bath, the park’s star attractions.
The Devil’s Bath was the final attraction, the finale of the visit to the park. In all, in spite of some challenges with crowd bunch-ups on the first loop, Wai-O-Tapu had been a spectacular experience, something we’d consider a must-do in Rotorua. On the way back to our car we stopped at a bubbling mud pool, the final thing to see in the area.
Our advice to park visitors: check to make sure this is still policy, but at that time a person could make two visits to the park within a certain time frame (I don’t remember what it was, maybe 24 hours?). This meant a person could visit the main park in the afternoon, then return just for the geyser the following morning. If this isn’t convenient, consider having coffee or a meal after the geyser but before doing the park, or do the park walk backwards. This would be a great way to avoid viewing-area bunch ups. –Cyndi
Epilogue (April 2021):
Out of curiosity, since Rich doesn’t tend to remember the names of things we did and sometimes forgets them completely until he sees the photos, I asked if he remembered the Lady Knox Geyser. It only took a second or two before he said, “Yes, the soap powder geyser.” I said, “Yea, I was just curious to see if you remembered.” “Oh yea, I remember,” he said.
He added, “By the way, there’s something I’d like to see while we’re here in Auckland. It’s up by the marina office—you put soap into this thing and your clothes come out clean. You can even make it happen at the same time every day!”
I reminded Rich the geyser would have happened naturally given enough time. He gave me a look that clearly said he wasn’t impressed, then he remarked, “I wonder if they’d pay to come see my garden hose. The rubber would eventually break down and it would go off on its own, but I can squeeze the sprayer handle and make it erupt.”
Sigh.
