9/20 - Explore Waimangu Volcanic Valley, Zip Line, Home-Hosted Dinner

This was a really full day. Which is why I am writing this on the 21st, not the day it happened. To see more detail on the  valley, go to Sandy's posts at https://beabondgrrl.com/2023-new-zealand/

The Waimangu Valley used to contain 2 smallish lakes and featured two separate and popular terraces -- one pink and one white -- where visitors would enjoy the thermal pools at the top and apparently slide down the terraces to the lake. Then in 1886, Mt. Terawara erupted with ash instead of lava, similar to how our Mt. St. Helens erupted with pyroclastic flows down the mountain side. The eruption formed a much bigger lake that overtook both of the smaller ones and the popular terraces are now 60 or more feet underwater.. We hiked through a section of the valley, and then took a boat ride on the lake, highlighting the most interesting features. 

FYI, I am having difficulty uploading photos in a logical way and since there are so many, I am just grabbing them in any sequence I can and not captioning mostthem. I am not sure why this upload is not working the way it used to, but the new process is much more time consuming and I prefer to show you as much as I can.

 

 

 

We had lunch at the Visitor Center before heading back to the hotel. 

There was an option for a zipline tour, which of course I signed up for, which consumed most of the afternoon and was wonderful. It is billed as a 'Canopy Tour' and actually had more information about the forest and the efforts to control/eliminate the introduced mammals that are wreaking havoc on the native bird population. Too often in history, we see the situation where people have the brilliant idea to bring a new animal in for some purpose. When the animal (with no natural predators) becomes a pest, they bring in another non-native animal to kill the first which then also becomes a pest. This situation reminded me of a children's song. "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly, I don't know why she swallowed the fly, perhaps she'll die. I know an old lady who swallowed a spider that wriggled and wiggled and tiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly....." and continues on with a bird, a cat, a dog and other animals until she finally dies by swallowing a cow.

 

 

There were 6 lines, 2 quite long, and 2 swinging bridges: a long one with wire 'rails' and a very short one with no rails where we were encouraged to pose in silly ways for a photo.

I got back around 5:30, barely enough time to clean up and dress for dinner. We were told to be prepared for cold because it would be in an outside venue to accommodate all 16 of us and the family we were meeting, so I brought way more layers than I ended up needing. 

We were greeted by 4 generations of this family. They live on the shores of Lake Rotorura, and had a huge fire going in an outside open fireplace. The walls were a heavy transparent plastic that would have kept the wind at bay if there had been some. We mingled for a while, then sat down to another hangi style meal, almost identical to yesterday's lunch. There were two other travelers at the table with Sandy and me and we were joined by 2 women who I think were mother and daughter (and the daughter also had a teenage daughter). We enjoyed a delightful conversation and after dinner, interacted with the great-grandmother of the clan. I love the opportunity to have extended conversations with the families we meet. In most cases, there is not a tour leader to help with anything, even when we don't share language. Of course, translation apps have made language challenged groups a bit more informative, but the sameness of people all over the world becomes clearer with each visit.