Paul and Siobhan's Travel Blog: New Zealand

Hang on just before going back to the North Island we stopped off at a small town called Kaikoura ( the 'r' is pronounced as a soft 'd').

This is one of the few places where you are guaranteed to see whales, more especially sperm whales. The reason is that there is a huge, deep canyon just 2 km offshore, and this is where the whales dive and hunt for food in the cold deep waters.

Sperm whale "fluking"...he or she will dive down to 3000m

We spotted 3 whales close up (6-10 metres away from the boat) and another just diving as we approached. The sperm whales spend around 5 minutes at the surface taking in air and then dive down to hunt for squid.

...there she blows....note the angle of the blow 45 degrees, unique to sperm whales

...one more breath...

There are plenty of birds too on this coast...

Not a whale, or a squid, its a...red billed gull, you'd never guess would you

Birdlife along the coast is plentiful....

White faced heron doing a bit of afternoon fishing

even a blue penguin resting in the shade

...wandering albatross.... not wandering much in this shot

...sooty shearwater

cape pigeon

...you looking at me????

notice the beak, it's specialised to remove salt water

After Kaikoura we headed for the north of the South Island, for the ferry...

...leaving Picton...heading for the North Island...

We landed on the North Island three hours later, and headed for the east coast and Napier...

..which is the art deco capital of the world..

Napier was devastated by an earthquake in the 1920's and was rebuilt in the modernist style of the day. It still has the highest concentration of Art Deco Buildings of any city in the world.

...still in business

Yep the Parkers are here too!

Some of the details are unique and beautiful

OK think you get the picture......

As a contrast to "modern" Napier we headed inland for 30 km to visit Lake Tutira. This is at the centre of a huge land estate donated to the NZ people by the owner in the 1930's. He purchased the land in the 1880's and kept a detailed log of weather, crop growth and climate whilst he owned the land...

...peaceful Lake Tutira

...yep bet you can't do this

We met up with some friends (Nicky and Alan) from the Galapagos near Lake Taupo, and took 2 hours to find the DoC camp site, Clements Crossing. Eventually we bumped into N and A driving round looking for the same camp. We settled on a cleared area in the middle of nowhere, but by chance with a DoC "longdrop" special toilet; we camped overnight in the heart of the woodland, listening to Moreporks (Frog mouthed owls) so called because the sound they make sounds like "more pork". This birding lark is easy.

...only one of these unlikely characters is Wonderwoman..

So we survived the night, deer baying in the early hours and flashlights of hunters looking for stags. We headed for Taupo and stopped off at a few volcanically active sites, having said our goodbyes to Nicky and Alan who were heading South.

The "Mountains of the Moon" Steam and gas just venting from the soil...

The Mountains of the Moon are a relatively sedate set of collapsed domes and vents that let off a little steam and gas. The ground is so hot here there are board walks to prevent shoes melting on the hot soil, or even bare feet being burned.

...angry vent... letting off a little steam

...even the locals exercise a little caution and don't land on the ground

...no point in letting all that energy go to waste, so there are a few geothermal power stations

Next stop is Waimangu. This place is special because the exact date that these springs and vents were created is known, 10th June 1886. Mt Tauraroa erupted wiping out all plant and animal life, hurling billions of cubic metres of dust into the atmosphere.

Mt Tauraroa...all quiet now...or is it

The lake was half this size before the eruption and did have beautiful pink and white terraced volcanic pools, these were destroyed in the eruption.

...a hundred years ago this hill was decimated of all life...

The valley has many volcanic formations:

Pan Handle lake...used to be Panhandle Flat after 1886, until 1904 when a smaller eruption caused the flooding.

Pan Handle lake has a beautiful turquoise colour, but is highly acidic.

Hot vent with thermophilic algae growing on the hot mineral deposits

Mineral enriched pool...white calcite around the edge with iron just below the surface...

The walk through the valley takes about two hours.

We stopped overnight at Waitiki springs, chilling in the hot natural springs (39 degrees Celsius)

The following day we visit....guess what.... another volcanic site, Waitapu. These are the largest of the volcanic attractions in the Rotorua area...

There are hot muddy pools....

...the Lady Knox geyser...the formation not the ranger on the left

which erupts routinely with hot water...if you add 500g of surfactant (soap)

...smoking craters...

...hot acidic pools....

Pinus Palestris...its a tree

...oyster pool....only shaped like an oyster

...iron deposits in this pool

...green pool

...nearly highlighter yellow...theres' a lot of sulphur in this one...

...some pools are so shallow that minerals crystallise out into patterns

Do you remember a few blogs back we photographed a block of concrete in a field. This marked where the two tectonic plates (the Australasian and Pacific plates) meet; well follow that fault line north and you end up in all these volcanically active places. They are all on the boundary of these two plates. We will visit one more volcanic wonder in the next blog that is on the same tectonic boundary and is bigger and more active.

We thought we needed a break from all this volcanicity (not to mention the permanent smell of rotten eggs) and visited "Rainbow Springs" to see some wildlife. This was originally a motor camp back in the 1930's and the owner decided to combine this with a wildlife park to try and preserve the fast disappearing wildlife, albeit in a captive sense.