Rotorua, Whakatane, Te Wairoa and more kiwis

Bath House Building, Rotorua

From Hamilton we drove on to Rotorua, where we were greeted by the lovely aroma of rotten eggs. This is a geothermal area, so the smell of sulphur wafts everywhere and once you leave the town you are best advised to stick to the marked paths as you never know where a new spout of steam might appear.

Rotorua itself was OK. We tried going to the night market for food one evening, but apparently they have a different view of 'night' here as when we arrived at 8pm it was all over. At least they had a couple of decent places to eat in Eat Street, which just about stayed open long enough for us to eat in the evening rather than what felt like late afternoon!

New Zealand

But we weren't there for that, we were here for the geothermals, and we were most impressed with those. We went to four different sites, all of which were good in their own way, but we especially liked the last two. But I will cover those in the next two posts.

We didn't do a lot in town, as there wasn't much to do. We went to visit the museum, which was in the very impressive Bath House Building, but we weren't really in the mood for it, so got distracted by the café, and never actually got around to looking at the exhibits about the Maori culture. Oops.

We did pop over to Rainbow Springs, a very small wildlife park outside Rotorua that is involved in kiwi conservation and breeding. Most of the kiwi area is off limits, but there are some enclosures out in the park. If you go during the day, then you will only see the kiwis in the nocturnal house, but we went at dusk, so that we could see them outside.

You do have to be a bit patient, they can take a while to emerge. You also have to be very quiet, as kiwis are notoriously shy creatures. When they finally did come out, it was great to see them rooting around for food. The fence is very low - you are trusted to behave - so you can get a lovely close up view of them if and when they come along the edge of the enclosure.

New Zealand

Whakatane

One of our trips out of Rotorua was to the coastal town of Whakatane. On the drive out, there was some beautiful scenery - all rolling hills and the like. You could tell we were close to where they filmed the Lord of the Rings. Not that we actually visited Hobbiton; we were considering it, until we saw the price!

Whakatane

Whakatane

We had read that Whakatane was a place that we might be able to see the Blue Penguins, but that apparently turned out to be rubbish. There was a nice coastal walk, where we did spot a little Morepork owl, nestled in a tree.

Whakatane

Morepork owl, Whakatane

It was nice to see a different type of place, but it really was just a small town, with not that much to merit going there. It had one little treat in store though. We went into a charity shop for a poke around, and found the Jilted John LP called True Love Stories. I have always had an inexplicable liking for the song Jilted John, so as it was only 99 cents, we bought it. Of course I don't have a record player, so I haven't listened to it yet.

Te Wairoa

Our other visit was also sadly something of a disappointment, although to be fair, I suspect we had rather inflated expectations of what would be there.

Te Wairoa

The Buried Village of Te Wairoa, is the site of a small village that was established in 1848 as a model village, only to be destroyed less than forty years later, when Mount Tarawera erupted on 10 June 1886, killing around 153 people.

We had hoped that the village might be a little along the lines of a mini version of Pompeii, a small slice of history preserved by the volcano.

Unfortunately, there is really little more than a few archaeological remnants of the original buildings, and some replica homes to show what the village was like, and how it was left covered in 1.5 to 2 metres of volcanic mud.

mural of pink and white terraces

As well as the obvious disaster for the village and those who died or were bereaved, there was an additional loss of a geological feature that was touted as being the eighth wonder of the world.

On the shores of Lake Rotomahana were the famed pink and white terraces that had made the village a destination for tourists wanting to see them and bathe in their waters. Sadly the volcano destroyed them too.

Te Wairoa

Te Wairoa

Te Wairoa

Te Wairoa

Don't be put off from visiting or reading about Rotorua though, the next two posts should have lots of photos that will convince you that it is well worth a visit.

Te Wairoa

Deception Island

When Delphine gave us our briefing about what we would be doing today, we were a bit taken aback to hear that we would be having to get up at the crack of dawn.



We had known that we would be coming to Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, and that it was worth being on deck to watch the arrival, but we hadn't expected it to be so early.

But she had explained her reasons, and we were all convinced that it would be worth it.

So it was that we were on deck, at 6am in the cold mist of the early morning, to see Ortelius make its cautious way through Neptune's Bellows. Deception Island is in fact a volcano. Not an island with a volcano on it, just the tip of a very large volcano sticking up out of the ocean.

And it is an active volcano that is overdue an eruption. Though we were assured that there are plenty of devices measuring activity so there should be good warning for us to escape to a safe distance.

In a previous eruption, many many years ago, a small section of the wall of the volcano collapsed, allowing the sea to flow into the crater, or caldera.

Ships can sail in through this narrow 255m gap, called Neptune's Bellows, but have to be very careful of Ravn Rock which sits just beneath the water and has claimed ships in the past.

The volcano is huge.  The diameter of the caldera is an enormous 15km.  And it is somewhat surreal to be sailing into the heart of an active volcano, but be surrounded by ice and snow.

The captain navigated his way through the bellows, pushing the ice out of our way as we went, and we were soon safely approaching the old whaling station where there was a pre breakfast landing scheduled.


And for those who were crazy enough, this was also the opportunity to take a polar plunge - not usually so much a swim in the antarctic seas as a quick dash in and out.



We took a look at the weather - snowy, misty and cold - and decided that as we had no intention of getting in the water, there were no penguins here, we had done similar before, and we could get a long range view of the whaling station from the warmth of the ship, we would skip this landing and get in early to a leisurely breakfast instead.

When everyone was back on board having breakfast after the short landing, the ship moved to a different position in the caldera, and pushed its way into some of the sea ice.

From here, Delphine had arranged with the helicopter pilots that we would all be taken up for a short flight around the top of the caldera, to get a birds eye view of this unique island.

This is not something that the trips usually offer, so it was a great opportunity, and why we all forgave Delphine the 5:45am wake up call.  The mist had by this time lifted a bit, so although visibility wasn't amazing, it was good enough to get a fabulous view of the volcano.

As we passed over rim and looked out across the vast expanse of the crater, we could only just about make out the tiny form of our ship, wedged into the ice, which gave us some perspective on just how big the caldera is.  you can just about see it on the very left side of this photo, about half way up. It was a great extra to the trip and we all enjoyed it.

Back on ship, they had lowered the gangways either side, and we were able to get down on to the sea ice and walk around.  With no wildlife to look at and no science stations to visit, this felt a bit like when the schools close due to snow and everyone just goes out to play.

The type of snow doesn't really make good snowballs we discovered, but people were making snow angels and posing for silly photos, and just generally having a bit of fun in the snow.

One of the silly photo opportunities came about when the crew lowered the front mooring line over the side of the ship.  Of course it was ridiculous to think that people would take photos of each other with this huge rope in hand pretending to pull the ship; but we still all did it!  And we also all got together for a big group photo in front of Ortelius.



All in all we had a good morning on Deception Island, and were definitely ready for our lunch.

Hacienda Venecia Day 3 - volcanoes and traditional food

volcano

The third day at the plantation was a visit to the National Park called Los Nevados.  We wound our way up the side of the volcano.  The volcano is an active one but it is only on yellow alert.  Green is when it is dormant, yellow is active but not expected to erupt, orange is that an eruption is expected and red is an eruption.  The last eruption was 1989, but the worst one was in 1985, when the eruption caused an avalanche that went sixty km along a canyon in one hour, destroying towns and killing 20,000 people.  At the top of the volcano - or as close as we were allowed to get to it - we could see where the canyon used to be and the remains of a bridge that used to cross it sticking up out of the new ground level. 
 

last eruption filled the canyon

The road up the volcano was full of turns and switchbacks.  Out local driver knew the road well, but still there were a few hairy moments when it seemed that the bus that we were on lost traction or just simply when we were yet again right on the edge of a sheer drop.  We stopped off a few times on the way up. 

big plants

The first was to take a closer look at the plants that covered the hillside.  They reminded me a little of a pineapple.  The stem was a series of rings, and the heights varied from about a foot to about six foot high.  But the top of the plant had lots of soft green furry leaves and flowers that looked like little sunflowers.  They looked beautiful individually, but I found the sight of them all on the hillside really striking.  In particular, the low cloud meant that they had a slightly spooky look about them as they were just visible through the heavy mist.  Suitable for the day after Halloween.


excellent fresh water



Our next stop was to checkout the water.  We filled our bottles at a stream of water tumbling down the rocks, assured by our guide that it was the purest in Colombia.  It was icy cold and certainly tasted good. 

Further up the volcano we got off again to see the rocks and lunar looking landscape.  We sat for a while on the rocks because despite the chilly weather, they were nice and warm. Even the pool of water in one of the hollows in the rock was tepid rather than icy as it should have been.


warm rocks



We paused a few more times in the way to the top, and once there we broke through the layer of cloud into bright sunshine to see the peak of the volcano, covered in a glacial layer of ice and snow. We stopped for our lunch and a hot chocolate, before making our way back down.



sculpture in Manizales



 

On the way back to the finca, we passed through Manizales town, still struggling with its lack of water. From what we saw, it is a lovely town with fabulous views out to the surrounding mountains.  We stopped to look at the view and checked out a huge sculpture representing the pioneers.  It was most impressive depicting people and oxen dragging a city up the hill.  We also found a huge dead beetle.



sculpture in Manizales



Back at the finca, the girls cooked us up a traditional Colombian meal of a hearty chicken and potato, with corn on the cob, avocado, capers and quipa, which is a like a rice pancake.

big dead beetle

We set off for Guatape in the morning, and as we drove we could see how prevalent the landslides are in this area.  We later found out that after we left there was another mudslide in Manizales that killed 24 people.