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Waitomo Top 10 Holiday Park, Waitomo, North Island, New Zealand. 1507km

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We spent several days in North Island’s tourist Mecca. First the tourists came to see geo thermal activity. Then casinos and extreme sports. Now it’s a must on any NZ itinerary. We managed to find fun things to do while attempting to avoid the big tourist traps (we did not always succeed).

We left the Coromandel Penninsula on Thursday noon, after spending time in the playground and near the beach. My plan to kayak to cathedral cove got botched due to a big ocean swell that proved too vicious for the local tour company to throw at a bunch of amateur kayakers. We spent the next 4 hours driving to Rotorua, stopping only for a short lunch break along the way. The drive, like almost all the roads, ran through heaps of agricultural land, with sheep and cows lining the pastures wherever one looked. The kids were antsy towards the end of the drive and we couldn’t wait to get to our campground and get them out and about.

We reached Rotorua around 5pm and headed straight to Cozy Cottages International Holidy Park, a nice campground with an added bonus of mineral hot pools 5 meters from our motorhome. I took the children for a dip in the 38C water and we spent an hour splashing about. We then got dressed and ran to the playground which is adjacent to a boiling mud pool. Ron developed great motor skills lately and was able to handle some difficult climbing structures.

On Friday morning we succumbed to the brochure barrage and headed to Rainbow springs, a small nature reserve / zoo to see some of NZ’s endemic wildlife. We mostly saw rainbow trout (an introduced species) swimming about he natural springs. The kids did enjoy feeding the fish with special pellets that we purchased at the entrance. We then got to see some local bird species, the kea, kaka, tui, and some others. We also saw a unique reptile, the ???, which is a direct link to the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The big hit was of course the kiwi bird, NZ’s national symbol, and a truly weird bird. It is a nocturnal flightless bird with several mammalian characteristics. It is estimated that several hundred years ago over 12 million kiwis roamed the land but today there are only thousands left. It is nearly impossible to see them in their natural habitat so we got to see one in a darkened viewing room. Interesting bird.

We continued to Agridome, a very touristy place where we saw a show featuring 20 different varieties of sheep, some useful for wool, others for meat. Over 20 million sheep in NZ, and only 4 million people. At the end of the show Ron got up on stage and bottle fed a tiny lamb.

In the afternoon we drove into town and found a nice playground by the lake (Rotorua literally means lake #2 in Maori). Ron and then Orr mastered the art of sliding down a pole. It was great to see. We had a nice dinner in a local café and headed back to the campground.

Today we got up early in order to make in time to Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland, where every morning at 10:15 the Lady Knox Geyser erupts. We made it just in time for the show. In order to get the geyser to erupt, a ranger actually throws some soap detergent into the geyser mouth. The geyser has two water chambers, the cold on top keeps the hot below from erupting. By softening the cold water with detergent, the hot water below can make its way out. The actual eruption was quite lame to be honest, nothing close to spectacular as Old Faithful in Yellowstone.

After the geyser, we walked a three hour loop of the various fumaroles, hot springs, and pools and were reminded of our trip to Yellowstone 5 months ago. The stink was the same but we couldn’t feel as impressed as the other tourists after the sights we had seen in the US. One pool, Devil’s Bath, did stand out for its almost fluorescent yellow color.

After some chow, we headed east and arrived here in Waitomo in the late afternoon. The kids and I spent some time in the hot tub (not natural this time) and then in the playground. It is a nice campground.

Tomorrow we will explore the Waitomo caves.

Good Night,

-Hemi

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 3:03 am and is filed under Big Trip, New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.