38°21′27″ S 176°22′9″ E
Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Area

This morning we took a short walk to see the avocado orchard owned by our hosts at the Purple Hen B&B.

Avocado trees looked nothing like we expected!

Then we traveled south to Napier with a stop along the way to see the geothermal pools at Wai-O-Tapu which is just past Rotorua.

This geological feature is amazing & is well developed to accommodate large numbers of tourists. It was the first time that we felt a bit crowded here in New Zealand. That said, the crowds did not interfere with us having a good experience & being able to see almost everything we had hoped to see.

There is a geyser that erupts every day around 10:00 in the morning but unfortunately we were about 45 minutes too late for that. However there was still lots of other sights here to see.

There were numerous deep sulfur craters with bubbling mud at the bottom & others filled with steaming hot water.

There were no places to soak as all of them were far too hot – some well over 100 C!

Depending upon which way the wind was blowing the smell of sulphur was quite strong – almost enough to gag you!

We left the hot pools and continued south to Napier, about a 2 hour drive through rolling hills and winding roads.

We checked into our B&B – 119 on Georges – and were greeted by our genial hosts Wendy and Peter.

After a brief rest we drove to the downtown area, had a late lunch/early supper at a sidewalk cafe, then headed back to our cozy room.

More adventures in Napier tomorrow.

Cheers!