(An inaccurate title to this post, as will be seen).
Early in the morning we had our breakfast (a surprisingly hideous one, as we’d requested omelettes from our AirBnb and these emerged from the microwave which they had been cooked. I tried telling myself they were steamed, like a chawanmushi, but it didn’t help in the least) and then went down to the visitor centre to wait for our bus to Waiotapu The Thermal Wonderland. The bus arrived and we got on, and a horror began, as the bus driver was a woman who fancied herself a tour guide. She had a headset so her words echoed throughout the bus, and she spoke almost constantly. Gems included an account of every local landmark (‘this is the Rotorua shopping centre’, ‘to the left we have the polytechnic’, ‘to the left is a poster for foot-golf which you can play at this golf course’), outright banality (‘this is a golf course. If you look out, you might see people playing golf’), and the indescribable (‘Tuesday is Christmas when we give presents and meet our families. It is a good time to call your families whilst you are on your travels’; ‘This is a bicycle track. People ride bicycles on it. If you wave at them, they might wave back! Why don’t you try waving at them, you will make their day’; this is a tree). Everything was delivered in a tone of lowkey revelation, everything – from the number of Jersey cows owned by a local Mauri clan to a tired joke about the golf course, repeated thrice, was delivered in the same tone. Facts were transmitted but no actual information. Curiously, this was also true at our second stop, the Lady Knox geyser, where all we learned from the person who delivered the talk was that her name was Nickie, nothing at all about the geology or the science of a geyser; in fact all she said was ‘I failed science at school.’ It was really strange to me. Having worked at a university amidst people who cared and valued science communication, this determined ignorance was surprising. It was also true at Waiotapu itself, where there was almost no interest in explaining what we saw: it was a thermal wonderland and that was enough.
Anyhow. The first stop was a huge mudpool, bubbling away like something from Labyrinth. Very picturesque, made me want (again) to visit Balochistan where there are mud volcanos to be found. The next was the Lady Knox geyser – I wonder what she made of it being named after her. Here there were hundreds of people ringed around a tall white mound of silica, far too many people which I think set the tone of the trip. Then Nickie who failed science arrived, gave her contentless spiel, and poured some soap into the mound. It bubbled, it erupted, and that was that. They geyser itself was interesting to see, but the use of surfectant was weird. Do they do that at Yellowstone or at other geysers, I wonder? I suspect not.
Knowing that all the people at the geyser would next be going to Waiotapu we dashed out to the bus and then dashed off the bus, then dashed past the first few spots where hundreds were clustered. It then became much quieter, though remained busy all the way through. Waiotapu was very different from yesterday’s trip (embarrassingly I forget the name). The colours were even more vivid but they were yellows and pinks rather than the greens, blues and reds of the previous day. The most vivid was of course the most famous, the steaming lake fringed with scalloped orange, and I was fascinated to see that the steam itself was tinted different colours: pink, yellow, green. There were deep caverns belching steam and mud, others encrusted with aulphur flowers, wide terraces scalloped in yellow, small lakes fringed with high white cliffs, and vivid chartreuse pools.
We returned to eat lunch at the flat, our ears still ringing from the bus driver. Then strolled out for coffee and cake followed by the Polynesian Spa for some dips in successively hot pools. The alkaline waters seem to be very good indeed for my eczema, which improves by leaps every time I try it so I am thinking of getting myself some packs of bath salts from here for future flareups. The milky acid pool was pleasant but didn’t suit my skin nearly as much so I didn’t stay long. There were many Chinese women, all of whom went into the women’s changing room at the same time and wandered about naked, but fortunately I found myself a little stall to shower in, and then waited for a changing room stall to open up. Dinner was fish and chips at the awardwinning local chippie – I like the snapper they use here – and then back and to bed.