Tahiti

Our first thoughts on Tahiti: this place is NOT cheap! I suppose it says a lot that we booked into the Sheraton Hotel to save money... by making an internet reservation when we were in Australia we actually managed to save a fortune. Saying that, it's still possibly the most expensive accommodation we've had this year! Ah well. At least it is beautiful!

We crossed the Date Line during our flight to arrive in Tahiti the day before we left New Zealand, very appropriately in the middle of the night. The airport is in Faa, about 6 km from Papeete the Capital of French Polynesia. And after collecting our luggage we were horrified to hear that a taxi for the 3km to our hotel would be about 20 quid! Eeek! So Gary in fractured French asked a friendly family lurking in the airport shop the way to the Sheraton, received a rapid and extremely prolonged response (and thankfully hand-pointed directions)... so we set out to walk instead. 3km? Peanuts! Actually we didn’t even have to walk that far. As we strolled down what we frantically hoped was the right road a bus which was more like a converted red-and-white lorry picked us up. So we arrived at our glamorous 5 star resort on the back of a lorry laden with rucksacks. I bet they don't get that here often! To their credit, the people at reception managed not to stare at us too much as we checked in.

And I suppose our week here has continued much along the same lines. We were as determined as we have been all of this trip to do the things we really wanted to despite the cost, but we have no problems with getting most of our food from a supermarket and cramming it into the mini-bar-fridge! I mean, we had several nice (and pretty pricy) meals out when we felt like it. And best of all, we really splashed out and went scuba diving again.

The Sheraton resort is a 20 min stroll from the centre of lively Papeete, perched on the edge of the island over looking the lagoon. As you'd expect, it has pretty gardens, a lovely pool and Jacuzzi, restaurants... and dive centre. As we'd been deprived of diving on the Great Barrier Reef we couldn't resist, which was just as well as this was bay far the best scuba diving we've done yet. The first of the two dives in particular was sensational. We were taken by boat to the outside of the barrier reef that forms the lagoon around Papeete, and then descended 20 meters or so to a lush coral garden filled with tropical fish. It was all very vivid and beautiful, but this was completely eclipsed by the denizens. A huge leopard ray flapped its way through the water in the distance, giant tuna drifted by, and of course there were the sharks! LOADS of them. More than you could count... hundreds must live in that region as there were always more than 20 near us. And I mean near us - they would brush past us as we swam, avoiding touching us by inches. Most were quite small black fin tipped sharks, only 1 to 1.5 meters long, but they still looked the part - every inch evil predators. There were a few grey reef sharks around too, and these were slightly bigger, up to 2 meters long. But the star was the lemon shark that dropped in - a 3 meter long monster! We all went very still as she swam through our group before meandering on with a flick of her tail. I don't think I'd have made much more than a mouthful for her.

Which I suppose brings me to the most fascinating point - we were completely safe. Apart from being advised to swim with our hands close to our bodies to avoid having our fingers nibbled we just drifted along as usual. They simply weren't interested in eating us. But they were very interested in eating a large tuna steak our dive guide let out of plastic bag he was carrying at the end of the dive. He warned us to stay back first, then flicked the bag open, the tuna popped out, and - Zooooooooom! Sharks can MOVE! They are incredible! They zipped to the meat in a fraction of a second and devoured it voraciously, swerving about each other to get a good bite. I've never seen anything like it.

The second dive was also fantastic, although perhaps not quite so sensational! We visited two wrecks, an aeroplane and a large ship, both of which had been sunk for over 50 years so were being reclaimed by the sea. Lots of coral, beautiful fish, glowing sea-slugs - very pretty. The wrecks were somewhat disconcertingly near the runway to the airport... which made us wonder about our next flight out of here! But we were told after the dive that they had been sunk deliberately as they were no longer needed, which we thought was an improvement on being formed by a drunken pilot missing the runway or something.

Anyway, tonight we fly to Easter Island, another small island in the midst of the Pacific. This one is under Chilean rule rather than French, so we'll have to practice our Spanish as we visit the massive and mystical stone statues that lie in clusters all over the island. But for now, au revoir and see you in http://catch-up-with-the-sun-southamerica.blogspot.com !

Tahiti Photographs

One very beautiful sunset, on the oh so slightly manufactured beach of our hotel! Very pretty palm trees for me to stand under none the less. And a lovely view out over the Tahiti lagoon towards the nearest island, Moorea. Below you can see an interesting photo of Gary outside the hotel, at the edge of the lagoon-like swimming pool... as the sea is so close behind him it looks as if he is walking on water! You can see a plane taking off from the nearby airport too - luckily not too nearby so we could easily get some sleep.

The crabs that lived off the rocks near the hotel were huge! Well, not quite Hakodate-sized monsters, but a good 20 cm across. I found it fascinating to watch them skuttle sideways as the waves hit them and knocked them from thier prime sunning spots.

Another beautiful sunset, more lovely palm trees, and a good view of Moorea (on the right half of the horizon). That island (like Tahiti) was always smothered in clouds. You could never see the mountians at the centre of the isle, only the coast line. And frequently the clouds would encroach over the coastal regions too, giving us a soaking as we walked into town!

Return to Auckland

Our return to Auckland was a brief one, as we had spent a reasonable amount of time here when we first arrived in New Zealand. But the city had changed a bit since our initial visit. Very confusingly for us it had become notably warmer as spring faded into summer, but at the same time they were truly gearing up for Christmas. In other words people would be wandering around in shorts and flip flops past fake snow, pine trees and giant Christmas decorations. Really big ones. They seem to go in for that here – the biggest Santa Claus I’ve ever seen was pinned to the side of the book store opposite the cinema… he was a good 4 storeys high! Or near the harbour there was a towering yacht converted into a decoration by strewing its mast and rigging with Christmas baubles and tinsel. And every now and then you’d stumble across some massive shiny red bauble with silver snowflakes painted on the side plonked randomly in a public space – each at least 5 meters high! Oh, and the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, was also lit up for Christmas each night in red and green. Very pretty!

But the prize for the most memorable display has to go to the department store across the road from the giant bookstore-Santa. They worked on a smaller, but infinitely scarier and more surreal scale. Each of their 8 odd shop windows was decorated with a different Christmas theme: Santa, reindeers, Snowmen, presents, mangers and so on. Which is fine - if they had left out the music. But unfortunately although each window scene was only separated by a wooden beam 5 cm thick, they all had their own individual blaring sound tracks. So you’d get ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ blending with ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, clashing horribly with ‘Rudolf the red-nosed Reindeer’! Walking past all 8 windows was a nightmare – we were always glad to hear ‘… and a partridge in a pear tree!’ simply because it was the display on the end of the shop and therefore the last deafening assault! Why couldn’t they just pick a tune?

Anyway, on to Tahiti, where hopefully it will be warmer, and we can relax in our only truly luxury accommodation this year. In other words you can’t find any accommodation that isn’t 5 star there, so since we’ve only got a week on the island we thought we may as well check into the Sheraton and get into the spirit of things! I wonder if they have Christmas trees…

Return to Auckland Photos

Sunset over the docks in Auckland. Pretty pink sky! And below you can see the Sky Tower dressed up in green and red for Christmas. All very festive and colourful!

Rotorua

The first thing you notice as you drive into Rotorua is the smell. And the steam rising from a geothermal park on the outskirts of the city – but that’s not as notable as the smell. Rotten eggs. Having lived near the steal works in Portalbot for much of my life I’m quite familiar with this one – every time you drive past the place on the M4 you get that distinctive sulphide whiff! I’ve always felt sorry for the people living right next to the thing, and wondered if their sense of smell adapts over time to completely block it out.

Rotorua may have the lovely sulphide stench in common with Portalbot, but little else. And after having spent four nights there at least I do know now that your sense of smell adapts quite happily to block it out after a while… but it comes back all too readily if you leave the area for a few hours! In the case of Rotorua of course the smell is due to the geothermal activity of the place, which is of course why were interested in visiting in the first place. There is actually a section around Lake Rotorua near the eastern end of town which is called ‘Sulphur Bay’ – where unsurprisingly yellow deposits on lava-formed rocks near belching fumaroles are the norm, the water is strongly acidic and the smell is particularly bad! This area is very popular with birds which nest on the shore of the lake as the hot ground keeps their eggs warm. Another great thing about Sulphur Bay is a hot-spring complex called the Polynesian Spa. We spent a very relaxing afternoon lazing in hot pools gazing out over the acidic lake complete with steam rising in the distance! They have pools of geothermally heated water at different temperatures… some very pleasant, others a bit hot! My favourite pool was situated right on the shore of the lake where the view was sublime and the water a toasty 41 degrees Centigrade. This proved a bit warm for Gary who preferred a 39 degree tub with a woody smell to the water. And we both thought the hottest tub was a bit much – after 5 minutes in the 42 degree Celsius water we nearly passed out!

While we were staying in Rotorua we thought we might as well make the most of the geothermal attractions. After Taupo we had developed a healthy fascination with them! The most notable features are in parks or reserves… meaning you have to pay to get in unfortunately, but how often do you get to see multi coloured steaming lakes or geysers?

So we first went to Te Puia in the Whakarewarewa Thermal reserve on the edge of Rotorua itself. The main attraction here was Pohutu geyser, apparently the most impressive geyser in New Zealand. And it was pretty impressive! As we entered the park we could see it spurting water in the distance, but by the time we had wandered around to it the devil had gone dormant, only letting a plume of steam out. OK, we did take a while to get there as we’d stopped at some particularly entertaining gloopy mud pools on the way… But signs near the geyser reassured us that it performed regularly, 2-3 times an hour, so we joined a few other bored lingers to wait for a good view of the next spurt. Pohutu took its time – well over an hour – but it was worth it. Eventually some water started to gush from the hole in the beautifully coloured silica terrace surrounding the geyser. And these feeble spurts were soon replaced by torrent of water that must have reached 20 meters above the ground! And once it got started the geyser continued for some time, not quite so forcefully, but enough to keep us entertained. We tried to avoid getting caught in the fine spray from the geyser though – it was freezing cold and smelt REALLY strongly of bad eggs!

The next day we visited the volcanic valley of Waimangu. This is apparently the newest active geothermal region in the world – formed by a big eruption just over 100 years ago. At this time a geyser which spurted water, mud and rocks up to 400 meters in the air was active… but sadly it died in the early 20th century. But in the 100 years since the geyser died a truly beautiful place has evolved – lush subtropical plants surrounding vivid blue-green steaming lakes and colourful silica terraces formed when the hot water from springs and streams deposits minerals onto the ground over time. We walked for 4 km from one end of the valley to the other and were truly impressed. It might not have any active geysers, but as a geothermal area Waimangu knocks the socks off Te Puia!

The final area we visited was also pretty special – as beautiful as Waimangu, but in a more desolate but surprisingly colourful way. This was Wai-O-Tapu, which like Waimangu is about 30 km south of Rotorua. It has a geyser called Lady Knox, which isn’t very active… to get it to perform someone has to pour soap suds into it! This is done at 10:15 every morning, after which the geyser foams a bit before erupting a good jet of water that reaches about 10 meters in the air. Pretty and fun to watch, but not as impressive as the Pohutu geyser. But the rest of the park was incredible, lots and lots of small caters with bubbling water and mud were near the entrance, and colourful volcanic deposits were sprayed all over the nearby rocks. But as you ventured further into the park it became even more fascinating and beautiful, the highlight being the huge neighbouring hot pools of the Champagne lake and the Artist’s Palate. Here vivid blue water rose fizzing and steaming over a bright red rock lake edge to flow gently into orange yellow pools which gave way into a vast white silica terrace. Hopefully some of the pictures below might give you and idea – it was stunning. And there were other active valleys beyond this to stroll through until they gave way to a huge crater lake. Amazing place.

Anyway, although we’d happily stay here longer (despite the smell), we now move on back to Auckland. After all, we do have a plane to catch to Tahiti in a few days time…

Rotorua Pictures

This was the impressive Pohutu geyser in Te Puia! The jet of water spurted into the air here is about 20 meters high (as you can see if you look at the very small people standing on the bridge in the bottom left hand corner). Better still, at the base of the jet is a terrace of mulitcoloured silica depositions, surrounded by a sulpur-tinted wasteland. Beautiful!

Bubbling muck! These globules are formed every ten seconds or so - starting as bubbles of gas rising through mud formed by acidic errosion. When the bubble bursts a huge drop like this rises, then splats! There were more violently exploding mud pools too - where splatters would jump up to over a meter high - but they woren't as elegant as the simple gloopy ones. And below are the Cathedral Rocks - a lava structure at the edge of the beautiful fryingpan lake (the largest hot-spring in the world). This was in Waimangu reserve. The colourful rocks just steam continually... complementing the fantastic patterns made by the wind swirling steam rising from the lake.

The inferno crater, again in Waimangu. This is meant to be the largest geyser-like structure in the world... the water depth changes in a complex but predictable pattern over cycles about a month long (it must be female!). Beautiful blue, isn't it? I'm pearched on a fence as usual to get in the photo. Lots of scalding water beneath me if I fall off and so on...!

Gary by the Warbrick Terraces - more fantastic colours made by silica deposits, plus a lovely bubbling hot spring. You can see why we found these geothermal parks hypnotic, no?

The elegant Lady Knox geyser in Wai-O-Taupo park. Not quite so impressive as Pohutu geyser, but still nice. Not so active either though... this erruption occured only after the administration of soap suds!

The beautiful Artist's Palate and Champaigne Lake in Wai-O-Taupo. These incredibly vivid structures are the reason the park has the reputation of being the most colourful geothermal area in New Zealand. Stunning - especially with the steam rising and being swirled into different patterns by the wind... Here you can see the pools from two different angles - one with me next to them looking sheepish, and the other showing the colours off a bit!

Taupo

We were a bit sad to leave the south island. Driving around there was a lot of fun – we saw seals, albatrosses, penguins, sea-lions, lots and lots of sheep, and some of the most spectacular scenery we’ve ever seen. But none the less we had to move on back North to move forward… after all, we do have a flight to Tahiti to catch in a few weeks! So we gave the Nissan back to ACE rentals at Picton, hopped on another ferry across the Cook Striates and stopped-off in Wellington briefly… during which time it never stopped raining. To avoid dissolving completely we swiftly hired another car which turned out to be yet another Nissan Sunny… this one automatic to my horror (although Gary admitted he missed gears too – he’ll see the light!). And so we prepared to drive up to Auckland … stopping off at a few places en route of course.

We decided to spend a few days in Taupo - to wander around the beautiful lake we had glimpsed a few weeks earlier on our long coach journey south from Auckland to Wellington. Lake Taupo is the largest in New Zealand, a hugely scenic expanse of water snuggled in the midst of volcanoes. But as we drove north from Wellington we got a bit distracted! As soon as we left Wellington it stopped raining (yay!) but oddly for New Zealand the scenery wasn’t that remarkable at first. But this all changed when we reached the ‘Desert Highway’. Not a good title – definitely not a desert. No sand, cactuses, and it was pretty chilly, despite being late spring. The ‘Desert’ is actually an area of volcanic ash left from an eruption of numerous surrounding volcanoes in the past. It’s mostly a barren wasteland, with only tufts of grass punctuating black soil, but in the distance you can see the snowy peak of one of the volcanoes responsible for all the destruction... very beautiful!

Anyway, realising we’d ventured into volcanic country we decided to have a break from our journey on the southern shore of Lake Taupo at a small thermal spring area. And here we became completely addicted to wandering around natural hot-pools and holes of bubbling muck! It’s strangely fascinating and hypnotic to gaze at steam rising from a crystal clear bleu-green pool, or watch mud to burst up in miniature liquid explosions from the ground! And of course to try and photograph the perfect mud bubble bursting! Saying that, we also found watching the sun set over the volcanoes flanking Lake Taupo later that evening pretty fascinating - the clouds turn more colours than seem possible.

I suppose this sums up what we enjoyed most about Taupo: geothermal activity and water! Just north of lake Taupo is Hukka falls and the Aratiatia Rapids, where pale blue crystal water cascades in impressively powerful jets over the rocks… although unfortunately the cascading only happens a few times of day for the Aratiatia rapids as they’ve built a hydroelectric dam just above them and open the water gates every now and then. But it’s all very pretty to watch if you turn up at the right time! We also liked a much smaller stream near Lake Taupo which was naturally hot – flowing directly from a geothermal hot spring. It seemed to be a favourite place to go and bathe for locals, although we just waded about for a while.

But perhaps our favourite thing in Taupo was The Craters of the Moon. This is a small geothermal park – a very hyperactive, small geothermal park – which formed relatively recently following the construction of a geothermal power station nearby. Unfortunately it doesn’t boast any hot-springs, but has wonderful craters, pools of mud, and very active fumaroles belching vast quantities of steam into the air. We spent ages wandering around the tracks gazing at the sulphuric wasteland near the craters, or the patterns the rising steam made when swirled by the wind. Absolutely beautiful in a very desolate way… as long as you ignore the smell of rotten eggs!

Which is perhaps why we’re so excited about our next destination – Rotorua. This town is situated in the midst of the most geothermaly active areas in New Zealand. It has geysers! And (apparently) Rotorua has much more impressive areas of geothermal activity than any near Taupo. Brilliant!

Taupo Photos

The stunning 'desert' of volcanic ash in the central North Island, complete with stunning volcano in the background!

One very steamy hot-pool - fantastic green water, crystal clear, and very warm. In this particular area on the south shore of Lake Taupo there were a number of springs, each with beautifully clear blue or green water. There were also a few small mud pools, where liquid mud plops continually! Moving down, these with the rapids below the hydro electric dam near Taupo. Spectacular (if brief) flow when the flood gates are opened!

The Craters of the Moon! OK, it didn't look much like we imaginged the moon, but it was still great. This is Gary by a particularly impressive hot steam vent.

After being thrashed in mini-golf, Gary had to show his skills at the real thing... sort of! His shot out to the mini island in Lake Taupo was pretty brilliant - the ball landed just next to the target (where I've marked the cross on the water).

A beautiful sunset over Lake Taupo. And it was like this virtually every night...

Nelson

Nelson is on the coast, right at the Northern end of the South Island. Now since Queenstown is only about a quarter of the way up the South Island, and duel carriage ways are as rare as the kiwi in New Zealand, unfortunately we had a bit of a trek to get there. OK, a trek through yet more stunning scenery, this time predominantly mountainous. The most striking things we saw were some large turquoise blue lakes in the Southern Alps (have a look at the photos below). They were amazing – as if someone had dissolved vast amounts of copper sulphate in the water. Apparently the colour is due to the mineral composition acquired by the glacial melt. What minerals? I don’t know! But it looks incredible!

Anyway, after a good 12 hour drive we arrived at Nelson, which turned out to be a pretty little didn’t have the energy to wander far the following day! But after a bit of recuperation we spent a day driving to the west side of the north coast, to Farewell Spit. This is a huge sand-spit, stretching miles and miles out to sea in a graceful curve to the north east. You could see it on an atlas or satellite image – a bit like a scimitar sticking out from the top of the South Island! As it’s pretty remote, Farewell Spit acts as another reserve for rare birds and seals to bread. So if you go to the right place you can see baby seals playing in pools on the beach!

On our way back to Nelson we called in on the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. This reserve takes up a large part of the mid section of the north coast, and is pretty inaccessible by anything other than boat (or walking I suppose). We only had time (erm, daylight) for a short wander near the water but it was still lovely.

Anyway, we now leave for the north island by ferry – and intend to round off our visit to New Zealand with fire. Literally! We plan to spend the last few weeks in the geothermal areas of Taupo and Rotorua where you can find hot-springs, bubbling mud, geysers, steaming pools… yet another contrast!

Nelson Photographs

Turquoise water? These lakes in the Southern Alps were incredible. The water really was the colour you see in the photo - we didn't use a filter on the camera or anything!

One of the large sweeping beaches on the North East coast of the South Island. With a very small Vicki looking dwarfed by the mountains!

The graceful curve of sand stretching off into the distance (and off the photo for that matter) is Farewell Spit. We wandered out onto the spit as far as the end of the trees... which took about an hour!

Abel Tasman national park. Or at least the edge of it.