Volcanoes

One of the things you hear a lot when traveling around the North Island is how much volcanoes have affected the landscape.  Everywhere you go you see the effects on the landscape by volcanoes.  Most are dormant but there are still some active ones.  Hiking through the Tongariro National Park we came across volcanoes that are still active.  (See previous post)

Two of the best known lakes in New Zealand that used to be craters of volcanoes are Lake Rotorua and Lake Taupo.  Both have a lot of lakeside activities and are popular tourist destinations.  Lake Taupo is the largest lake in NZ and (according to our drive/guide) is as big as the island of Singapore.  We stopped in Rotorua for a few hours.  There my friend, Joe and I, were able to enjoy a dip in the geothermal spas at the Polynesian Spa.  It costs NZ$25 each for the day but we only spent a couple of hours there.  The Spa has 7 different pools of different temperatures, mostly around 40C (about 104F).  You can smell the sulphur in the water.  I understand there is no fish in Lake Roturua because of the high sulphur content.

We spent the night at Lake Taupo, which is pretty much a tourist town.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of water-craft activities, although we saw some boats docked at one end of the lake.

Looking at Lake Rotorua from Polynesian Spa

A geothermal spring with bubbling gas

Joe and I having a dip in one of the geothermal pools at Polynesian Spa

Hapu Falls (below) is also used to generate electricity

Hapu Waterfalls

Lake Taupo