A Very Sulfuric Christmas – 25 December 2007

We had a high of 21 – that’s Celsius (translation, just over 68 Fahrenheit). There were a few sprinkles of rain today, but nothing that kept us from having a fun day with the bulk of places closed. Certainly not a White Christmas.
As a present to ourselves we decided to sleep in. Waking up around 10am we were finally able to take in part of “A Muppet Christmas Carol” on television. Despite the Muppets being on, we still managed to get out the door in just over a half hour. We were hungry and needed to find a place to satisfy that breakfast craving. With it being Christmas our options were limited, however, it did not take us long to find out that American made Subway serves up breakfast. Getting in just before the lunch rush at 10:55am we were able to order up a couple of scrambled egg, ham and cheddar cheese on white breakfast sandwiches. We inhaled them and still had a large hole in our stomachs. To fill it, we got back in line and ordered up another sub. In hobbit terms, this is called second breakfast. This time however, the subs were lunch subs. After completion of second breakfast and a return trip to the motel for medications we headed out for the day.
With the majority of businesses and tourist attractions being closed our options were limited. We spent a good deal of time yesterday trying to figure out today’s attack plan. One option for today was to drive the Volcanic Loop, a beautiful drive of about four hours in total from our hotel and back of the volcanic region in the center of the North Island. The Volcanic Loop circles around the Tongariro National Park, including the volcanoes of Mt. Tongariro, Mt. Ruapehu, and Mt. Ngauruhoe. In LOTR, the area around Mt. Tongariro doubled as the “Plains of Gorgoroth”, while Mt. Ngauruhoe doubled as Mt. Doom. The whole region acted as Mordor. The one downside to our plan today was the weather. Due to the cloud cover the Volcanic Peaks were not visible, not even from our position across Lake Taupo. Therefore, we scratched the Volcanic Loop and went with Plan B.
Plan B was for us to make our way back north of Taupo for 25 minutes to visit The Hidden Valley, home to the Orakei Korako Cave and Thermal Park. While on our way there we decided to make a brief stop to check out Huka Falls one more time, although this time from the higher up lookout. The stop was worth it. After a brief walk along the Waikato River we finally made our way to the lookout. From there we were able to see the whole run, and the beautiful aqua-blue at the base of the falls. When the first of the rain sprinkles began we tossed our video and photo gear back in the car and headed off to Orakei Korako (I jokingly referred to it as Uracai Karoake to spoof off LOTR).
About twenty minutes later, after traversing the amazing landscape that reminded us of Maine farmlands rolling into a long Arizona highway into a secluded Hawaiian roadway we found ourselves at the resort at Orakei Korako. We bought our tickets and took the ferry across Lake Ohakuri to where we would spend the next two and half hours. As we disembarked we were greeted with numerous signs of caution and danger warning us to stick to the formed pathways as the crust in the volcanic and thermal areas can be deceivingly thin and the water is often scalding, if not boiling. Adhering to the signs, we made our trek around the park taking in Nature’s beauty that’s been thousands of years in the making. With the sulfuric odor permeating our nasal passages, before our eyes we would discover multiple geysers, an emerald terrace, fault scarps, silica flats, mud pools, a rock imposing an elephant, a fountain and an extremely rare (one of only two in the world) geothermal cave. The geothermal Ruatapu Cave is considered to be sacred. Resting at the bottom of the cave is Waiwhakaata (pool of mirrors), where one can place their left hand in the water, make a wish, and provided no one ever knows what you wished for it is guaranteed to come true. Also, because of the acidity and chemical composition of the pool it has the ability to clean jewelry, which Hayley and I both took the opportunity to do. To say the least, this was a cave we did not mind entering. Upon completion of our trek we ferried back across the lake to enjoy a flat white and a hot chocolate before returning to Taupo.
Before arriving back in Taupo I wanted to make a stop at another geothermal area known as the Craters Of The Moon Geothermal Walk. It too happened to be open on Christmas and fortunately for us it was open for another two hours. We would not need the two hours, as this walk only took us about 45 minutes. Again being greeted with the signs of caution and danger we stuck to the pathways. Along the way the scenery gave us the sense of smoldering fire with all the steam rising. I also had a sense of the “fire pits” from “The Princess Bride.” There were numerous craters throughout the walk, including a giant Mud Crater. As we concluded our sulfuric jaunt through the Craters our hunger began to grow rampant.
Our hunger would be satisfied at the Silk Thai Restaurant overlooking Lake Taupo before our return to the motel for the evening. Back here in the motel room, I have kept busy downloading the days pictures from our cameras, recharging all our batteries, and uploading pictures to my Facebook account so you all may be able to see some of the beauty we have been enjoying. Hayley has kept herself busy doing laundry, reading magazines and watching movies. It is now time to catch a few winks before tomorrow’s adventures.
Cheers
America can learn from New Zealand:
1. To conserve water usage toilets have two flush modes: a liquids flush and a solids flush.
2. DUI checkpoints are efficient here. With seven to ten officers checking separate drivers at a time, utilizing a breathalyzer the driver speaks into it stating his or her name and address without exiting the car, providing a reading to the officer within just seconds. There’s no way around it. Each checkpoint only stays in one spot for about a half hour to forty five minutes then relocates to keep from the word getting out on where the checkpoints are.
3. Businesses open on a Public Holiday (such as Christmas and Boxing Day) charge an additional surcharge of 15% to compensate the employees for working.
4. To aid in child safety and loss of electricity, electrical outlets have a switch on them to turn the individual plugs off when not in use.