Day 22 - Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland and Huka Falls

Today we are going to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland.

Two years ago, I had some bad luck with the weather here, and I hope it will be better this time. The sun is shining in Taupo, so I set off early to cover the 55 km to get there.

However, dense fog or morning mist, whatever you want to call it, sets in along the way; in short, visibility is sometimes less than 30 meters. I was already thinking of continuing towards Rotorua, but just after the Wai-O-Tapu exit, the sun comes out. So I turned the RAV4 around and arrived at the park shortly after opening.

This is a geothermal park with different craters and pools that appear in various colors due to the oxidation of minerals, such as:

- Brown/Red: Iron Oxide

- Pink: Manganese Oxide

- Yellow: Sulfur

- Pink: Mercury Sulfide

- White: Kaolin

At around 10 a.m., we go to see the Lady Knox Geyser, which erupts daily at 10:15 a.m. using soap powder. However, the height and duration of the water fountain are somewhat disappointing because there hasn't been much rain here recently.

Afterwards, we go back into the park and I walk the three different walks to the individual points of interest.

Around lunchtime, we head back towards Taupo and make a stop at Huka Falls. Here, the Waikato, New Zealand's longest river, narrows to a width of 15 meters and then rushes over the 11-meter-high Huka Falls into the plunge pool. Over 220,000 liters of water are flushed down the waterfall per second.

Afterwards, I drive to Wairakei Terraces, a thermal bath, after a short stop at the accommodation. The individual water pools have a temperature of 32-39°C and contain various minerals.

In the evening, we go to the Mexican restaurant on the lakefront, and then I watch the attempts to sink the ball with one stroke on an island in the lake at the Hole-In-One Golf.