Day 140 Rotorua-Taupo, New Zealand

It was only a short drive to the next destination although we got up fairly early so we could get to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland in time to see the Lady Knox Geyser go off. At 10.15am every day somebody pours soap crystals in the geyser and within usually a few minutes it the spouts water up to 20 metres into the air. After watching this we then walked around seeing the many pools and craters before finally heading over to the mud pools.
Just before we got to Taupo we stopped off at Huka Falls which is very spectacular and the water here is a fabulous colour.
We got to the hostel around 3pm and as soon as we got there I got the impression it was nowhere near as nice as the ones we had stayed in before, especially the hostel in Rotorua. People here just didn’t seem as friendly and the whole hostel set up seemed a complete mess and here we were for the next 5 nights. Luckily though later that night 3 people from the hostel in Rotorua turned up and one of these was Adam the guy from Yugoslavia so things were certainly looking better. It wasn’t long though before the owner had upset Adam and he and a german girl had decided they would only be spending one night here. So to try and forget about that the 3 others from the last hostel (Adam,Chris and the german girl whos name ive forgotten) and myself all went out on the town for a few beers while Jill and Simon stayed in. We soon forgot about the hostel we were in and had a great laugh playing pool,drinking and then heading over to the karaoke bar to try and get Adam to sing.

Lady Knox Geyser

Lady Knox Geyser

Wai-O-Tapu

Wai-O-Tapu

Wai-O-Tapu

Wai-O-Tapu

Wai-O-Tapu

Wai-O-Tapu Boiling Mud Pools

Wai-O-Tapu Boiling Mud Pools

Huka Falls

Huka Falls