First rain we have seen......first rain clouds even. Good news for the dairy farmers!
Logging is a huge industry here....and in some places that makes for a hideous sight...and enormous trucks on the highway which PASS us.....the truck drivers exceed the speed limit wherever we are....even on those narrow hairpin curves....the speed limit, by the way, is 100 km/hr which is 60 mph.
Gratefully, most of the timber is waiting to be cut...beautiful, lush, dense. There are very few of the ugly sights just shown.
We note the smoke/steam from miles away...coming from this hyperbolic cooling tower (normally associated with nuclear power plants)...when we got closer, we decided to investigate. There no signs, no indication whatsoever of what this is....we are guessing geothermal....very impressive in its size and "clandestine" operation!
There are rental vans and campers aplenty in NZ....a very popular way to travel for the younger set. This company, Wicked, uses this marketing ploy to attract the youngsters. And it even got the attention of these oldsters.
From reading and word-of-mouth, we had learned that this place was not to be missed for its geothermal sights.
It was also full of flora and information...the silver tree fern is the NZ national emblem.
Likewise, the new growth of the silver tree fern is seen in many artists' renderings, especially blown glass. It symbolizes growth, hope and new beginnings. It has seemed to us that the New Zealand people embody and express all of these virtues, characteristics....to most Kiwis, the glass is always half full!
The sulfurous aroma in the air is very strong. It permeates the air for miles, which is one reason we are staying on the other side of the lake.....those who live here or who have been touring here for more than a day say "you get used to it..don't even notice it". I never reached that category...and Tom's chemical engineer nose has smelled so much worse for so long that he never noticed it!!
As you amateur geologists know better than we, the geothermal phenomena come from the molten core of the earth. The heat gets near the surface in places like this and in Yellowstone between the tectonic plates.
The black comes from graphite and crude oil.
Beautiful trails between the geothermal sites.
An explanation of where the colors come from.
This area is called the "Bridal Veil" because of the lacy train that is formed by silica (sand) pumped up from below the surface by the hot water. The silica is deposited in an ever growing glacier of sand.
That huge smokestack we pictured above....didn't know what it was....now we do! It is the Ohaaki Geothermal power station and NOW we are seeing it from nearly 10 miles away. We think we may possibly be the only people who turned off the main road to investigate and actually SEE this! We later learned that about 17% of NZ's electrical energy is geothermal. And the large majority of the geothermal energy comes from this area. It is a little ironic to note that geothermal energy comes from the molten earth's core. The source of that heat is radioactive decay. Therefore, some of NZ's energy is nuclear in spite of their "No Nukes" policy.
Not as big or as many colors as Yellowstone. But still quite a sight to see.
Caught the bubbling mud pools.....bubbling!
Our Rotorua lodging.....
A lovely view from our deck....note the arched landmass in the center.....that has never been visible in the 27 years that the owners have lived here. Drought induced......the owner's boat has been idle all summer....the water is too shallow to get it out for fishing. The good news about all that is the fishing in the shallow waters near the house is fantastic!!!
John and Barb Kessinger....does this look familiar?
The bridge right next to the property..
Too tired to go back out, Tom got Chinese for me and his usual fish n chips.....In NZ, take out is take away.
Day is done.
