On our way from Rotorua to Tongariro (in the heart of LOTR/Hobbit country) we visited Waimangu Volcanic Valley. This is the site of the world’s most recent geothermal (1886) system and a place well worth visiting. They’ve got everything organised so well whilst still retaining it’s natural state. You walk downhill (ideal) and catch a bus balk uphill – well thought out for the seniors in the party. You can see how the forest has regenerated itself and how there are signs that the classic and much-loved “eighth wonder of the world” – the pink and white terraces – are to be replaced by a new “wonder” – the Warbrick Terrace. Leaving here, and before we arrived in Taupo we visited the Haku Falls an amazing canyon of white water.
Waimangu volcanic park from David Harrison on Vimeo.
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