Last night at the Tamaki Maori experience I adopted a young German girl called Sonia who was also staying at my hostel. No car and wanting company, I offered her a drive out into the Redwoods Forest to see the much talked about blue and green lakes that sit side by side but are different colours. Much to our disappointment (as per above photo) the day started cloudy and so the lakes were distinctly lake coloured, not blue or green, just lakey. But we got a nice walk out of it before heading back into Rotorua to see what the rest of the town offered and have a much needed coffee.
By the time I let rotorua after lunch it was sunny again so when I passed by a different Green Lake, this time it was actually green and steaming from the hot springs. My first port of call was a hidden hot spring and waterfall that a few people have pointed me in the direction of. For this I had to turn my elderly hire car into a gravel road and panic my way up it at 7mph. Half way up and I'm thinking I'll never find his stupid place but eventually there's a clearing and a faint path into the forest. So I'm getting into my costume thinking if anyone is watching and there isn't a spring here I'm going to look mental... But thankfully I found it and got straight in. Ahhhhhh so so warm and made my skin feel amazing, even if my car grunted for a good 10 minutes afterwards sending me into a fit of panic...
I stopped again at the North end of Lake Taupo to walk the hour and a half round trip up Huka Creek to Huka Falls, an aggressive but stunning waterfall. Literally looks like some giant has emptied their bath water all in one go... With tonnes of almost fluorescent water chuckling itself down stream. And the sound, my god.
Then turning south again the reach my hostel in Turangi at the south end of the lake, I got to see the end of the day driving along the edge of Lake Taupo as the clouds started to come over and the sun start setting. A very lovely end to a very lovely day.
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