Back to the Future: Remembering Rotorua, NZ
Well friends, we're back to NZ pictures again! This is my third installation of my New Zealand photos from 1989. Check out my other Back to the Future posts for more NZ pics.
Besides Whakawerawera (Fock-a-where-a-where-a) Forest Park, Rotorua was my next favorite. Maybe because they are pretty much one and the same,...I don't know, it's just a beautiful area. These first two pics are of one of the waterfalls there. 
It is an amazing place, full of fantastic geothermal features (click on this to see a live webcam of the area). There is a geyser that goes off every 30 min. or less, boiling mud pools, and rocks encrusted w/ sulpher containing materials that create fantastic colors! But boy, as beautiful as Rotorua was, the stink was worse! As you know, sulpher stinks like rotten eggs. Yuck!
My favorite feature of the geothermal park was the boiling mud pools (video clip). It was all I could do to not stick my hand in there and smear some of that soft, gooey mud all over my face. It looked like it would make the perfect facial! 
They didn't have facials there but they do have public mineral baths that you can take. Sorry all you nudists, you have to have your clothes on!! The baths are tiered and flow one into another. The very top tier contains the water straight out of the ground, and each succession of pools naturally cools from the air. So you can choose which pool to go in by the temperature you prefer. My skin has never felt so soft as it did after I got out of the mineral bath!
I'll leave you now with a beautiful example of what these minerals can do. The blue, yellow and green you see here is a result of the sulphur.
I hope you have enjoyed your little photo tour of Rotorua and that you have taken the time to check out the links.
3 comments:
Oh my, New Zealand is awesome. I love your pictures. Two of the places I hope to visit some day are Australia and New Zealand.
I followed you back from a comment on BTExpress. This may not be 35 comments but it is a start. :)
"iwannagoiwannagoiwannago!" *tantrum**pout* hehehe... :)
ok... gotta start saving and planning. u got wow pics of the best nature NZ has to offer, and i loveee nature. thanks for sharing... ok... i gotta go see how much is in my piggy bank. :P
That's a pretty cool webcam. I talked to a guy from England on the chair lift yesterday. He said he was going hiking through the Grand Canyon this week. I asked sarcasticly if there was anything like that back home. He said there a couple of canyons, most you could throw a rock across. Nothing like the Grand Canyon though. New Zealand is beautifull, but before I decide I want to go on a trip outside the country, I want to see my own. One day I want to rent one of those hybrid cars and just start driving, and driving and driving.
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