A quiet day at Tawhranui

To break up the long haul till our next vacation (which is unfortunately drawing to a close now), Mary-Ellen and I headed for a May weekend get-away at Tawhranui reserve. Just a quiet day to read, explore, and for Mary-Ellen, do a bit of knitting. We packed up the car with some beach gear and and some lunch and started up the coast. This was Mary-Ellen's first visit to the reserve, so we enjoyed the numerous sheep and pukeko birds wandering through the fields. We headed up to Anchor Bay to enjoy the nice soft white sand while we had some lunch. This of course attracted a number of gulls who became more and more brazen as we finished up. They often fought with each other, making deep shrill sounds that echoed across the relatively quiet bay.

We sat and enjoyed a bit of sun and warmth, that seemed to be fleeting these last few weeks as winter approached. The view was calm and serene, a nice change from the usual office scene, with no phone calls or computer screens. Aside from a handful of families and a surf club in the water, we practically had the whole beach to our selves.

After a while we packed up and headed out of the park, towards Jones Bay, at the entrance to the park. This beach is significantly different, where the white sand was replaced with the calm lapping of water on cobbles which created a muffled sound as they collided and slid downward as the water receded through them. Mary-Ellen enjoyed some more knitting in fading sunlight, while I went for a quick swim. Another wonderful view to enjoy before heading back to city and the rigors of everyday life.

Lion around at the end of the trip

On the final day, before we started the long journey back up the coast, we had one final stop. This next venture was something we had seen at the information centre, and Mary-Ellen couldn't help but insist on going. Buried deep in the countryside is a lion and trout breeding centre known as Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park. We were not sure exactly what to expect, given that most places like this that are far off the beaten path are often either completely dumps, with minimal care taken to presentation, or they are hidden gems. Lucky for us, this turned out to be the later. We ended up moving back and forth between exhibits to see the different shows that were scheduled, so I won't describe the actual journey, but talk a bit about each exhibit. 

One thing this wildlife park does is breed lions. In a large pen, there were several lions, two adult males, lots of females, and a nice set up with caves and rocks to jump on. Mostly they just laid around, but as feeding time approached, they began pacing back and forth. People were beginning to get a bit unnerved as the lions stared in one direction, that happened to have several people lying on some grass. Jokes were thrown around, some people moved away, and the theories were more than a tad ridiculous. Finally I had to point out that the gate behind those people was likely where they bring their dinner in. More and more people came in, crowding the fence, so I didn't get any good shots of feeding time, but the fellow who came to tell us about the pride and hurl chunks of meat over the fence was quite comical. To add a bit of biblical irony, the fellows name was Daniel.

There were a number of other animals in the park, from goats and lamas, pigs and kea parrots. They were all very interesting, but one of the best parts of the park was the ducks and the trout that inhabited streams and pools throughout the entire park. At the beginning, they provided us with a bag of fish food, so as we walked around the park, we tossed food into the water. Some pools had so much food in it, we avoided adding to the waste, while others were filled with voracious fish and waterfowl that often competed for tiny pieces of food, as fish swam and ducks dove after each morsel

But the real reason Mary-Ellen was drawn to this attraction was the promise of an opportunity to pet a lion cub. Although I am sure the first thing one imagines is cuddling the thing, the cubs were too old to have roaming around with humans. These things were no longer kittens as far as size goes, but they were definitely still in their youth as one lion pesters the other who was desperately trying to sleep. In a cage within a cage, the lions laid, waiting for the masses within their den to come patiently by, sticking their hands through the cage and softly, but firmly (as there winter coats were coming through and they were ticklish) pet them. 

There was a sense of pure wonder as I watched Mary-Ellen pet this over-sized pussycat that would one day be one of the top land predators. His huge paws were a clear sign that this would be a truly enormous cat some day, but for now, he was content to lay and sleep as we stroked its thick, soft coat. It was a great way to end a vacation with many new experiences crossed off our list: watch a geyser erupt, see a completely different form of organisms (archaebacteria), pet one of the most iconic land predators on earth, and of course all the rotten egg smelling geological formations along the way!

Old Geyser

We concluded our Wai-O-Tapu tour with a visit to the Lady Knox Geyser, christened so not by the person who discovered it, but by someone visiting it some time afterward. It has a more interesting story to its discovery, as the area in question was originally a prison camp. Some of the prisoners stumbled upon a hot spring and had the bright idea that they wouldn't need to drag their clothes long distances or boil the water to get the laundry done. Now at the time, there was no funnel, no real indication that there was any issue with this source of water, but the warm layer that they were to wash in was sitting above an underground layer of super heated water, building pressure below the cooler layer. After beginning to wash their clothes with some soap, they were surprised by a sudden gushing of water which eventually led to their frantic dash from the pool and the scattering of their clothing downstream of the springs after being launched high into the air. The soap had reduced the surface tension of the cooler spring waters which allowed the pressure from the super heated layer below to come explosively through.

This was the story our wonderful guide layed out for us, although mine is a condensed version. Eventually, the prisoners set the geyser off as entertainment, building up a cone to project the energy into a more focused blast. The super heated water contains dissolved silica, which was deposited all over the area  to create the mound in the picture. The guide jokingly clarified that "what we were looking at is a geyser", as he pointed to it, "not a geezer" as he gestured to himself. 

He then dropped in a packet of biodegradable soap and slowly wandered off. After a few minutes the water began to bubble out of the mouth of the geyser before it violently but rather abruptly shot to 25 metres in a rain of silica-rich, super heated water, accompanied by vast amounts of steam in the chilly air.

Finding out this geyser was manipulated by man rather than a natural eruption was a bit disappointing , however it was a magnificent example of how a little knowledge can be used in wonderful ways, as this was frankly by far the most impressive science experiment I have ever seen.

Wai-O-Tapu

Well, the next day, we woke up to a nasty surprise. As I attempted to shake the water off the tent, it turned out that it was actually ice. So after a much needed hot shower and a warm drink, we took off to Wai-O-Tapu. On our way out of the campground, we noticed a wonderful rental van, which we will be sure to check out the companies rates for when Mom and Dad come down.

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. 

Redwoods are massive

I have not had the luxury, before this vacation, of seeing a redwood up close. It's always been on my to-do list thinking it would be part of a trip to British Colombia or west coast USA. During one of our long drives around on holiday, looking for our campground, we passed a redwood park.  The next day when it was a little nicer, we stopped so I could hug a tree and walk around a bit. They were beautiful, massive and lovely. We didn't stay too long as we were both feeling the pull towards food, but mark got some lovely photos before we headed to the campground for the night.