Orekei Korako Thermal Park

The terraces themselves are multicoloured and beautiful.

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We spent the day a little north of Taupo exploring Orakei Korako (Place of Adorning) Cave & Thermal Park, found right on the banks of the Waikato River at Lake Ohakuri. 

The most striking part of the park is the  fault-stepped  Emerald Terrace.  It is now the largest of its kind since the destruction of the famous Pink and White Terraces after the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886.  Because of the unfortunate damming of Lake Ohakuri in 1961, the lowest 35 meters of the Emerald Terrace are below the surface of the lake.

We had checked things out with the visitor center prior to our trip, and they were able to lend us a backpack to put Avani in for the walk, which involved a lot of hills and some immediate drop-offs into boiling mud.  Probably not the safest place to let a toddler run around on her own, and clearly not a country that worries about lawsuits, which is refreshing in many ways -- take some responsibility for yourself! 

Avani hung out in a backpack so she wouldn't fall onto the steaming hot terraces.

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There were tons of boiling hot springs and mud pools to view.  Eventually we worked our way down into the thermal Ruatapu Cave (sacred hole). The cave extends 120 ft down to a hot pool at the bottom named  “Waiwhakaata”, which means "pool of mirrors".  Maori women used the pool to bathe themselves for ceremonies.  Indira accidentally stepped in it.

Pam surprised us while we were at the pool.  She had planned to go sky-diving that day in Taupo but her trip was cancelled due to wind.  This was the first of many attempts that would all go awry due to weather or bad timing.  Pam took it as a sign that it was just not meant to happen!

Orakei Korako was another fascinating geothermal display and we loved the colors of the Emerald Terrace and the thick bubbling gurgly mudpools.

A bursting mud bubble.

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