21.12.19 Te Waihou Blue Springs & South Waikato District

An early breakfast at 7am and then I'm on my way. This campsite was not great. But at least it had electricity.

The first stop of the day was the short tour to the Te Waihou Blue Springs in Putaruru, about 1 hour northwest of Rotorua. The weather is supposed to be nice until the afternoon, so the impressions of this green color spectacle were simply fantastic. 1000 shades of green are a million times better than 50 shades of grey 😉

My day was already unbeatable after visiting the Te Waihou Blue Springs. That's why the rest of the day didn't really work out until I found a great campsite at Lake Taupo.

After visiting the Blue Springs, I wanted to see the Geothermal Region Waimangu Valley again and had to go all the way back to Rotorua. The way there leads through beautiful New Zealand hills, just like the ones you know from the Hobbit movies. In Rotorua, I filled up with cheap gas and quickly went shopping (I left the radishes for $4.50 and the parsley for $2.50 there...). But then 4 warning lights lit up in the car for oil, coolant, battery and a red exclamation mark, like an unresolved handbrake. Of course, something like this always happens on Saturday afternoon.

I tried to ignore it because the temperature on the dashboard remained completely normal. In Waimangu Valley, they wanted to charge $42 for simply walking on foot to some crater and volcano lakes through the forest. Time required at least 2.5 hours. Since I didn't have a place in mind for tonight, not even a plan where to go, and always thought that the car might break down - please not in the middle of nowhere - I used the free Wi-Fi for research instead of paying $42. The problem is that I have booked a place at East Cape from the 24th to the 26th of December to be at a particularly beautiful place for Christmas. But from Monday the 23rd, the weather in the east will be bad for 3 days. So now I'm orienting myself towards the inland/volcanoes and heading west. I'll see when I get to the East Cape. I quickly made a detour to Kerosene Creek.

What a bumpy road! In the seclusion, I tried to check the fluids of the car. Since the engine is under the seats, you have to partially remove the passenger seat to access...only to find the battery in a compartment. Where water and oil are, remains a mystery to me. So I continued with the warning lights to Kerosene Creek. It's a stream where you can bathe. Nice and warm thanks to the geothermal heat.

As soon as I turned onto the country road, the warning lights suddenly went out! Hooray! So I had a relaxed drive for about 90km to Lake Taupo. Since I want to go to Mount Ruapehu tomorrow, I drove past Taupo and along the eastern side of the lake to the south. You can already see the volcanoes on the other side with snow on top. In Motouapa Bay, I have a spot for myself with a view of Lake Taupo. The sun is still warming a bit, but without it, I'm sitting in front of the camper with 2 jackets.

I'm already here at half past four and can finally sort some pictures and tidy up a bit, deal with tomorrow, and cancel the campsite at East Cape. Today there's tomato soup 😊 and afterwards a great sunset at Lake Taupo.