After the Rain – Sightseeing

Yesterday it rained, and rained, then rained some more.  We spent the afternoon tucked up cozy inside the caravan, and I kept busy doing a little hand quilting on my NZ Botanical quilt. This is not easy going at all, because I think the backing fabric is quite “hard” and not at all easy to quilt.  But I’m halfway through, so I’m persevering.  Today, Tuesday, the rain has stopped, the skies are blue so we decided to make the most of it and go out and about.  But first, Gemma helped me make the caravan bed.  You can just see her little face peeking out beneath the quilt.

Where’s Gemma hiding?

We are staying at Taupo, which is part of the volcanic area in the North Island of New Zealand that has been active for the past two million years and is still highly active. So today we took a walk through the “Craters of the Moon”, a geothermal wonderland, full of steaming craters and vents, roaring steam fumaroles, and bubbling mud. 

Craters of the Moon landscape

Boardwalks and graveled paths made walking easy.  It was interesting to see birds and insects flitting around and the ground cover was mostly flowering manuka bushes.There were information boards dotted around, and for the weary (or elderly) plenty of seating to sit and enjoy the views.

Walking around the track, we heard the roaring of boiling hot steam escaping, and peeping over the edge of the large crater, we could see small pools of liquid mud, plop plopping away. A reminder of just how active and unstable this area is.

This boiling steam was coming out with great force, and noise!

Hard to see, but there is boiling mud in those small pools

It had been some years since our last visit, and it was certainly worth a return visit, especially since we qualified for senior discount.  There were plenty of tourists wandering about, and it was great to hear their travel stories, where they had been and where they were heading to next.  They seemed to be interested that Kiwis, like us, also like to visit these attractions.  And why not, we are always in awe of the power of volcanic activity so close by.

 

Lunch was next, and we took another return visit, this time to Lava Glass, glassblowing, gallery and café.  No photos were allowed to be taken in the gallery, so many beautiful pieces of glass on show, but well out of our budget.  We enjoyed a nice relaxed lunch, then made our way back to the camp.

We are currently camping at the National Equestrian Centre, just out of Taupo. 

There is a huge indoor arena so I went to see if I could take a peep inside.  No horses being worked inside today, but I’m sure it would be a very busy place when competitions are taking place.  Tomorrow we are moving on to meet up for a Christmas Rally.