bubble, bubble, toil and trouble....

This morning, after a quick swim in lake Tarawera (cool, but beautiful, and I'm used to cold water...), we said good bye to the wonderful Solitaire Lodge, and to Tarawera volcano - in abstentia, because it was lost in the fog....  we will remember it fondly though.... (this picture is from yesterday).

On our way to Napier, our next stop, we visited the geothermal area around Waimangu_ this is the only geothermal area in the world, whose exact birth date is known, and which is known to have been formed during historic time -  this entire area was created when Tarawera volcano erupted in 1886, and has been very active since.  It is an amazing sight, which makes one realize how the 7 billions of us are standing on a very fragile - and unstable- piece of rock....  You can see the inside of the earth trying to get out - it is awe inspiring and a little bit scary - as well as quite stinky at times (the smell of hydrogen sulfite can be quite overwhelming).  There are some very active hot springs (Turn on the sound on you lap top to get the full effect):

as well as some fascinating bubbling mud (thus the title of this blog).  I don't know why these are so fascinating, but I could have spent hours just looking at them....
  (for some reason, I can't upload the video as part of the blog, I'll add it on the FB page).

Along the way, there are also craters that were created during the explosion of 1886, and that still behave in odd and unexplained way:  for instance, this pretty blue lake fills up and empties out every month or so, changing temperature, PH (which can be as acidic as PH 2.1) and color as it goes - no one knows why....

New silica terraces (not as pretty yet as the ones that were lost in 1886, but maybe one day....) are being formed under our very eyes:

 The whole thing is eerie, beautiful, but at times looks (and smells) a little bit like what one imagines hell to be like.....

From there we took a longish drive to Napier- on the pacific coast.  It is just amazing how empty this country is!  particularly when we remember that we are in the most densely populated part of it:  3/4 of NZ inhabitants live on the North islands....  Yet, once can drive for hundreds of miles through beautiful and completely empty hills (except for sheep and cows - there are A LOT o f sheep and cows!).
We had diner by the pretty harbor in Napier, but did not see much of it yet.  We are staying on top of the hill, it looks a lot like Berkely - even the (unusual) fog add the the resemblance.  The weather is still pretty sucky (people here say that summer has never been that bad), but we have been able to avoid rain quite successfully:  it has rained on and off all day, but every time we went out of the car to look at things, it stopped... still, sunshine on the pacific ocean would be nice.....