what a great day! We did two things: a thermal area in the morning and a zip line /canopy tour in the afternoon.
Both were amazing and new to me. First we drove about an hour out of Rotorua, saw another half million sheep and cattle and found ourselves at Ohrakei.
We took a little one minute ferry across the lake and began our journey on boardwalks through about 1 1/2 km of thermal activity, from plopping mud pools to steaming sinkholes of all sizes,to quarter acre size areas covered with silica that resembled snowfields. And one cave that looked like a scary Halloween backdrop. All along the boardwalks were informational signs about tangle fern, tea tree plants, manuka trees. On the way back to Rotarua we stopped in tha Mihi Mihi cafe for a snack. Among a few antiques sitting around we saw two old Bakelite table phones, one with a crank where the dial area later would be and one with a crank on the side.
The afternoon trip was with a brand new company which has gotten a pile of acclaim for its ecological treatment of the bush.
This area had never been cut over and it was a thrill to see ancient Rimu trees as well as huge Silver ferns and other mighty giants. Nine of us made the group with two guides.
While the zips were exciting and gave me the opportunity to dig down deep and get up the nerve to jump off a platform 22m high, it was also a great tour for what we learned about the NZ forests, the blasted invasive mammals and the damage they have done to the bird populations.
Again, I'm so impressed with NZ. seeing how Maori and later immigrants have managed to live together gives much food for thought, and today we saw how much the concern for their environment affects many, many citizens here.
