Mt Haszard and Waimangu - 28th Dec. 2006

Another Rotorua walk (guess where Span went for her holiday!). Again this is not actually in Rotorua, but on a side road off State Highway 5, heading to Taupo. And this is the first walk I've paid for - $28 each for the privilege. This bought us access to the valley, with it's many thermal wonders, and a really quite comprehensive leaflet outlining the key points, local flora and fauna, the route, and with a timetable for the boat (extra, didn't use) and bus (included, used to get back to the start).

Everytime we go to 'vegas and have some spare time we try to go to one of the geothermal areas. Partly this is because I am trying to find the one that I visited when I was about 8, when I stayed for the first time ever in a hotel where they put mints on the pillow at night. Unfortunately Waimangu was not the right smelly part of Rotorua, but it was a good walk.

The whole main walk is downhill, starting with some beautiful panoramas from the top. You slowly wend your way down the valley to Lake Rotomahana, where you can pay extra to go on a cruise to where the pink and white terraces used to be.

The first geothermal wonder is the Emerald Pool in the Southern Crater, which has some very orderly algae and sphagnum moss. I'm not sure this counts as geothermal as it's cold.

Next though is the Echo Crater and Frying Pan Lake, as well as the Cathedral Rocks that loom over one end. Seriously large amounts of steam.

At the end of the lake you can walk right down to a hot water creek and springs, with mineral deposits creating a crazy palette.

Then there's the brilliant turquoise Inferno Crater and the Bird's Nest Terrace.

At this point we decided to head up. You can follow the main path along the floor of the valley, following the hot water stream, or you can climb the hiking trail up and over Mt Haszard. I was sure when we bought our tickets that the seller said it was only another 20 minutes, but the leaflet said an extra hour. We did it in about 40 minutes I think.

It is a very rugged track going up, and my there is a lot of up; even the down is very steep. Nice views of the Rift Valley (no, not the one in Africa) and the lake though.

And also some of these flowers.

Then it was back to the main track, with more mineral-painted terraces such as the Marble and Warbrick. Then a short nature walk to the lake and the bus back up the hill. I was pretty disappointed with the nature walk, until all of a sudden there was a crashing in the bush and a wallaby on the track. A bad time to run out of memory space, luckily it was patient with me.

There were two of the blighters, clearly hoping for some food. We callously did not indulge them.

And then we were at the lake.

All up I think the walk took us around two hours. Unfortunately Nickname Pending didn't check his watch at the start. It's a gentle downhill incline, suitable for wheeled conveniences, with the exception of the Mt Haszard part, as previously mentioned.

Tarawera Outlet to Tarawera Falls - 27th Dec. 2006

This is a Rotorua-based walk, although more accurately it ought to be called a Kawerau-based walk, as that's the closest town. To get to the start of the walk you need to go along the Forestry Tarawera Road, which is a private, unsealed, road, hence the need for a permit from the information centre in Kawerau. It's $2.50, and they give you two maps of the area and the road, as well as the permit itself.

Once you get to the camping ground by Lake Tarawera, it's a simple matter of walking over the new wooden bridge (which has replaced the swing bridge referred to in the Walks in the Rotorua Lakes area leaflet we bought from the Rotorua Information Centre). Then you can pick the walk left to Humphrey's Bay and ultimately meet up with the Lake Okataina tracks, or you can turn right, as we did, to the Tarawera Falls.

The Tarawera Outlet is where the river from the lake to the falls begins. It's a typical NZ freshwater estuary, complete with children jumping off the bridge when we were there.

The walk partly follows the river as it heads towards the falls, but wends away at times. Much of the bush has regenerated since the 1886 explosion of Tarawera, and there are massive rocks strewn through the surrounds - often with trees now growing around or through them. It gives you a sense of the power of the eruption to see these huge boulders thrown so far from the mountain. In places the ground is totally overgrown with odd little plants and mosses, in others ferns predominate. The bush here was not like in the Greater Auckland area - few kauri, no nikaus, mostly pohutukawa, rata, and other trees I wasn't familiar with. While we heard a lot of birdsong none came close enough to see or snap.

The track also goes through a particularly alien landscape at one point. Most of the time it's all reasonably typical native bush for this part of the country, but then you end up in this higher area, where it's all scrubby manuka, much of it covered in black moss. Perhaps a part of the land particularly scarred by the eruption.

The river itself has a number of minor waterfalls along it,

and also a very inviting water hole, complete with several rope swings. Very tranquil and restful.

Other parts are reasonably wild, and at several points various parts of the river plunge down into the rock and disappear underground,

Ultimately we ended up at Tarawera Falls, where the river spurts out of the cliffs. There's a cobbled area there with a few benches and we stopped to have a picnic before heading back.

It took us about an hour and a half to get to the falls, stopping a lot for photos. On the way back it started to rain a little so we pushed the pace a bit and made it the whole way back in only an hour. The signs (and leaflet) say two hours each way, and there is quite a bit of up (some with stairs) but mostly it's a gentle slope down on the way to the falls, and obviously the reverse on the way back. I would also advise wearing closed shoes. The track is maintained through small stones which are really annoying if you are wearing sandals, even decent ones like Tevas.

If you wanted to see the falls but didn't want to walk so far you can also access them through a 20 minute walk from Waterfall Road, where there is a carpark and toilets apparently. But that would be cheating.