Wai-O-Tapu (Thermal Wonderland)-a chance to view Allah's magnificient creations

I've mentioned before in my entry that I really wanted to visit Taupo when my PIL come here. So, on 12 August 2009, we started off our 5-day trip by visiting Taupo. It was our first stop before we headed off to eastland. We went to Wai-O-Tapu(Sacred Water) -Thermal Wonderland. Well, the place was the cheapest place compared to other geothermal pools around Rotorua. We took about 2 hours before we reached Rotorua and we was kind of lost in the way before we could find Wai-O-Tapu. My hubby just bought GPS the day before and he was so confident with the GPS eventhough we arived somewhere in the lost forest. (hihihi-Fathini had to go to a toilet and my MIL had to take her somewhere in a bush and asked her to pee there.Kesian anak aku tak pasal2 kena buang air kat semak). After a few turns, we finally arrived at the place.

We had to pay $6 each for the adults and $3 for the children. We didn't have to pay for Hafizah as she was considered under age. (selamat $3-bukan berkira sgt tapi boleh beli benda lain dgn $3 tu.huhu). There were so many pools once we went inside. We had to walk and Hafizah insisted to walk until half way of the journey she was carried by her papa and her tok. We had to walk in the thermal area for about 40 minutes. It's actually part of Scenic Reserve administered by the Department of Conservation. The whole area was about 18 sq.km. We could smell the sulphur and it was like "rotten egg smell". It's associated with "hydrogen sulphide"(H2S). There were range of colours in the area due to different mineral elements. There were:

Green: Colloidal sulphur/ferrous salts
Orange:Antimony
Purple: Manganese oxide
White: Silica
Yellow-primrose: Sulphur
Red-brown: Iron oxide
Black: Sulphur and carbon

Whit

This pool was called as "The Devil's Home"



This was The "Rainbow Crater"


The other two pools-not sure their names.


These were called as "The Artist Palette"

(The "Devil's bath")

The board walk between the pools.

By the time we finished touring in the area, all of us were so hungry. We didn't have our lunch yet and Fathini and Hafizah had started to complain. Hafizah even had to be carried by her tok when she was so sleepy and started to be grumpy. We didn't finished visiting the whole area as it could take us another half an hour. So, we headed out and had our lunch in our rented van. We had cold rice with chicken curry. (takde tempat nak reheat the curry or rice. huhu). We also took the chance to perform solat. (Jamak taqdim). The only hot thing we had was the hot chocolate that my hubby bought from the cafe inside the receptionist building. We continued our journey at about 5 p.m. I'll tell more about the other places that we have visited in the other entry.

Ka Ki Te Ano.
Assalamualaikum.

P/S: I didn't put all the photos as the are too many photos. Plus most of the photos are about the thermal pools.