We traveled down the foggy highway and turned down the road to the "thermal wonderland". We were greeted by this wonderful sign to add to the collection of awesome New Zealand signs.
Given our arrival was far earlier than the scheduled geyser eruption, we decided to venture into the primordial world of bubbling, super-heated chemical pools. There was an air of wonder that the mist added to this venture, and the dew clung to everything.
The first part was a series of pits, holes, and caverns of silica and sulfur, numerous plumes of sulphurous gas bellowed up form the ground throughout the valley. Some of these formations were merely vents in appearance while others were lined with bubbling chemical pools of sulphur, silica mud, petroleum, and even graphite. Again, we found yet another wonderful sign, warning us to stay on the path.
Occasionally the path took us through some beautiful and rather mysterious woods, obscured by the heavy mist the hung throughout the valley. Being there so early, there were few people on the track with us, and the only sounds we could hear were the hissing of gases coming out of the ground and the bubbling of water.
Then, seeming to almost defy the wisdom of the signs, the path took us down directly alongside the bubbling water, even across areas that looked as though they could be submerged if the water level increased but a few centimetres. We toddled carefully across these areas, which provided us with some amazing geological sights. More steaming lakes, multicoloured with the various chemicals dissolved in the water, the most prominent being the stunning yellow sulphur.
Two particularly interesting features were the oyster pool and the sulphur mounds. Oyster pool was created by the buildup of silicate chemicals, continually forming a pool as overflowing water deposits the walls that hold the chemical rich water in. The sulphur mounds built up underwater but were exposed when the water level dropped and are a reminder of the ever changing environment.
As we approached the end of this excursion into the thermal wonderland, we headed up this massive buttress, silica deposited with the help of bacteria to form an enormous sheet over 150 metres long. This would lead us to the last couple attractions, and one of which was my main reason for going.
I am uncertain how I feel about the fog obscuring the champagne pool, but I did get to see it. At first glance it is a dark pool, bubbling up like champagne, and bordered with a thick orange sludge. It is colourful and pleasing to the eye but that is not what makes it so special. The orange fuzz that covers all the rocks along the edge are infact archaebacteria. This is a very special organism, like bacteria, but different enough to be classified in it's own kingdom (like the difference between animals and plants). Although these creatures are all around us, we can not see them, and they seem to thrive in areas where no other organisms can survive such as these super-heated, chemical pools. This was a chance to add an entire kingdom of organisms to the list of creatures I have seen, something most people will never see, or at least know they have seen them!
Having seen what I thought to be the last of the amazing sights in this part of the park and being content that I could cross something off my life-time to-do-list, we headed to the exit. Wai-O-Tapu held one last treasure, a unique pool known as the Devil's Bath. This pool is sulphur laden and exhibits an extraordinary green colouration. I had definitely popped the cork too quickly with the champagne pool, for I was a bit awestruck by this gem. The lime green waters were unlike any other pool we had encountered from the Waimangu to Wai-O-Tapu. We took a few shots and after checking our watches, we realized we had to move to be on time for the geyser. We happily finished our tour, picked up an appropriate magnet of the devil's bath, and headed to our next thermal extravaganza.
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