Tag 130 - illegal

07.09.19

- Alex

After a surprisingly quiet night, we wake up at our rest stop in Rotorua and decide spontaneously to have breakfast somewhere nicer. We get the necessary breakfast supplies from a big supermarket. Since the fuel is currently only an unbeatable €1.09, we also fill up our van, then continue to a lake and enjoy our pastries from the supermarket there.

Then we drive back part of the way and go for a short hike in the Redwood National Park, which is located right next to Rotorua. "Red Wood" because the trademark of the forest is the rusty red, gigantic pine trees that reach towards the sky like columns - very impressive. Here, too, the thermal character of the ground can be seen, because the small streams and lakes that are located between the trees are turquoise colored due to the minerals and gases, and look like something out of a fantasy movie.

Immediately after this very spontaneous trip, we head to an area that also has hot springs. Accordingly, you can bathe in hot rivers, observe mud baths and geysers. The first stop is a warm river. We turn off the main road and drive our van on a bumpy dirt road. We find a parking space and, following a hint from the internet that many cars get broken into and things get stolen here, we take our high-quality belongings with us to the river. We only walk about 50 meters until we stand in front of a pool of about 30 square meters, which is directly connected to a small waterfall. It is already well filled and other backpackers and small families are also here. We put on our swimwear, join the other visitors, and realize that the water is unfortunately not as warm as we thought. After about 10 minutes, we leave the lukewarm pool, get dressed, and go back to the car.

We visit a "mud pool", a boiling thermal mud lake, take some photos, and continue on our way.

The next stop is a volcanic national park, where the largest thermal lake in New Zealand is located. We park our vehicle again and enter the information center, where there are all sorts of souvenirs, books, magazines, and admission tickets. Looking at the prices, we decide against visiting the park, but we see that you can somehow also visit part of the reserve (the entrance area) for free; at least there are no ticket checks anywhere, and a sign on the other side of the sliding door in front of us points to the correct "entrance" - in addition, we also need to use the restroom, which is also located in the entrance area of the park. We walk along the signposted path, firmly convinced that we will encounter a ticket inspector or something similar soon - but we don't. Not a minute later, we are standing in front of the first steaming, stinking hole, including an information sign - a bit confused, we continue walking and then explore the entire national park.