NZ North Island trip – Rotorua , Waiteti

Posting by Barb:

Our second excursion would be a weeklong road trip in a southerly direction from Whangarei.  First stop was Rotorua to visit Waimangu, a volcanic valley.DSC_3695 DSC_5005As per the pamphlet, Waimangu was born in the violence of a volcanic eruption and in geological terms it was created this morning. We actually toured the valley late in the afternoon and only had two hours to make it to the end to catch the last bus back to the main entrance (we were armed with cameras, multiple lenses and tripods.  Ella skipped ahead while the three of us tried to use our Nikon cameras to capture the colors of the volcanic paradise.

DSC_4983At one point Dennis and Bill were reprimanded by the park staff for ignoring the Keep Out signs and instead hopping the ankle high fence so that they could get their cameras and faces a little closer to the  boiling masses. DSC_4992After about 2 hours of photographic bliss we started to wonder how far ahead Ella had gone. We saw one of the returning buses pass us by and Bill made a joke that perhaps he saw something pink on the bus and maybe it was Ella. And then somebody on the bus was frantically waving and it WAS Ella. It was hilarious to see Bill’s face change from a humorous grin to an abandoned pout as he came to the realization that Ella had in fact abandoned him and was on the way back to the car. We arrived at the car an hour later and were joyfully greeted by Ella and sandwiches she made for us while waiting our return.

 

We continued our drive to Ohope and stayed in a very nice Top 10 campsite by the beach.

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