New Zealand Gallery

Tourist Travels........

At Lake Tarawera, south of Rotorua.

Being one of New Zealands many volcanos, Mount Tarawera was the site of a spectacular eruption in the late 19th century. Not your expected conical shape, but the eruption destroyed about half the volume of the range (it says here)

At the Waiotapu Mudpools, north of Taupo.

What else can you say? Smelly, boiling mud. Packed into tubs and sold around the world as a skin treatment at a billion % markup. And people ask me why I came to NZ for my MBA! These people could sell anything. We should put them to work on Featurenet........

Boiling Water at Waiotapu Thermal Reserve.

You could buy an awful lot of kettles for the cost of a family pass to this place, but the water wouldn't stink quite as much.

Jet Boating at Huka Falls

The Jet Boat is another Kiwi institution. Made famous at the Shotover River in the South Island which benefits from better scenery and sheer cliffs, ideal for scaring the living daylights out of the tourists. At Huka Falls, the cliffs are fairly minor, but the ride is just as good, with plenty of obstacles to veer around.

Looking South from Cape Reigna.

Cape Reinga is the most northerly point of New Zealand (island dots in the ocean excepted) and is thus the Kiwi version of John O'Groats. It even has the the signpost to every big city in the world and they don't even charge you for it!

Looking North from Cape Reigna.

Next stop Japan. The churn in the ocean on the left is not due to rocks, but from the clashing of the flows of the Tasman from the East and the Pacific to the West. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the difference in the colours between the green Tasman and the blue Pacific is incredible. Well worth a visit.

One Tree Hill

While it still had a tree. Concludes my world tour of U2 related arboriculture.