Second day in Rotorua: Wai-o-Tapu and the Waimangu Valley

The second day in Rotorua was even better than the first one. In the morning, a little shuttle bus was waiting in front of the hostel. It drove us about 30 kms away from Rotorua. Once again, I enjoyed the green and hilly regional landscape.


We made a first stop at a big mud pool...


... and arrived a few minutes later in Wai-o-Tapu.

Wai-o-Tapu means "sacred waters" in Maori. It is a 18 sq.km thermal reserve covered with craters, boiling pools, colourful lakes, fumaroles...

Devil's Home

Devil's Ink Pots

Then suddenly, I could not believe what I was seeing through the trees...


The Artist's Palette is a lake full of minerals. As the water cools down, the minerals are exposed to the atmosphere and give the lake these fantastic colours...

Primrose Terrace

Champagne Pool

Temperatures up to 300°C have been recorded in the reserve... Definitely not the best place to go for a swim!

Frying Pan Flat

Green as Colloidal Sulphur and Ferrous Salts...

Orange as Antimony...

Purple as Manganese Oxide...

White as Silica...

Yellow as Sulphur...

Red-brown as Iron Oxide...

Black as Sulphur and Carbon...

A Pied Stilt was having his lunch in the pool... He didn't seem to mind the high acid level of the water too much...

More strange chemistry...

... and the green waters of Lake Ngakoro

At the end of the tour, the Devil's Bath, changing from green to yellow, according to the day...

A bus drive later, I was in the Waimangu Valley.

A real paradise for ferns... They were big and everywhere!

The valley nowadays...

... and back in 1886... The year of the largest volcanic eruption since European settlement.

Echo Crater, November 1886 (G. Valentine) - Collection: The Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ

This place already attracted tourist in the beginning of the 20th century.

"On Frying Pan Flat", ca. 1910 (F.G. Radcliffe)

Huge bubbles under water, circles of steam on the surface...

The magic smoking mountain...

After this indication post, I found the most incredible thing I have seen in my whole life.

Behind the trees, a bright blue light...

There I was, at the Inferno Crater...

Now imagine, you're walking in a magnificent valley, and suddenly, you see this amazing blue steamy lake. It seemed like some light was coming from under water. Add to this a strange smell and the smothered sound of bubbling water, in the middle of a great silence... This was a very special experience.

After a long break, I went on walking... There was a whole range of beautiful plants to look at.

Little by little, I was getting closer to the great lake...

I followed a little stream for a while...

I even met a baby-geyser on the way...

And this was the end of the walk, on the edge of the Rotomahana Lake!