Tauranga New Zealand

 

The ship arrived in Tauranga around 10am. This late docking enabled us to wash and dry hair, have breakfast in, what some people describe as the 'Horror' Court before heading to the theatre for shore tour collection. What a civilized hour. I had booked DH and I on the Princess Tour of Wao-o-tapu Valley and a boat ride across Rotorua's lake whilst we were entertained by a Maori troupe during lunch.

There were enough bookings to fill 3 large buses, the second one just happened to be the one we travelled on. It took 2 hours to travel to Rotorua and smell the breathtaking sulphur fumes. Our first stop for the tour happened to be a ride on a paddle wheeler over Rotorua's lake. After we were heartily fed and entertained we boarded the bus to Thermal 'wonderland' of Wai-o-tapu.

The Wai-O-Tapu thermal area is associated with volcanic activity dating back about 160,000 years. Boiling springs and volcanic gases are brought to the surface by a system of streams in the ground heated by magma left over from earlier eruptions. The water temperatures can reach up to 300C which causes steam to vent through the earth's crust to form craters. The rotten egg smell is caused by the steam absorbing minerals and in particular hydrogen sulphide, out of the rocks and transporting it to the surface.

We were given two hours to walk around the thermal pools, craters and other sights. After the thermal area we were transported back into Rotorua to visit Rainbow Springs, a conservation park to native wildlife, to see a live Kiwi, Tuatara (a species of an ancient reptile which shared the earth with the dinosaur), kea and other endangered flora and fauna.

It started to rain on the 2 hour bus trip back to the ship and as we got closer, it became obvious the rain had been heavier in Tauranga. Lucky for us it wasn't raining whilst we were walking around the thermal pools.