As our White Island Volcano tour was canceled we unfortunately had to make other plans today. We decided that even though it was raining we would head to Orakei Korako which is a geothermal park about 50 minutes out of Rotorua. It is privately owned and to get to the geothermal area you have to take a boat across to the island. Steve took out his drone so we played in the water. It was weird as the sand and water were geothermally heated and warm to touch.
We made our way into buy tickets where we noticed their hilarious humour displayed on the toilets that were labeled galsers and guysers. We got our tickets and boarded the boat to the island.
The island involves a walk around the island to see the thermal activity. This place is one of the newest geothermal areas however that means it has still been active for hundreds and hundreds of years. We walked around at took pictures of the different thermal areas, we were lucky enough to see the geyser spouting water which is hard to catch as it goes of sporadically every 3 hours or so. The view here is amazing and the geothermal sights are great to see. It is also very different to WaiOtapu which we will be visiting in a few days.
The smell here wasn’t too bad either. We got about half way before the rain started. But even walking in the rain was quite nice. The other things that is fascinating about this place is looking at all the different colours and wondering how the minerals over time have caused it to change. Mother nature is a beautiful and frightening thing.
We finished up here and and headed back into town to meet up with Maria and Graz for lunch. The meal was nice but the service was so slow. After a very long lunch we headed back to the hotel for a rest.
Madi, Steve and I decided to go to the Polynesian spa while some of the boys went to see Fast and the furious. The spa was beautiful and we booked ourselves in to the deluxe pools that overlook the lake. We soaked for over an hour in a few of the different pools. These are really beautiful hot springs and it was only $48 for towel hire and locker hire included. I will definitely be back here.
After a lovely soak we returned back and Madi, Anth, Maria, Graz and I went out to have a quiet dinner before retiring early.