Rotorua - Day 4

September 17, 2023  •  4 minutes  • 763 words  • Other languages:  Deutsch

Today the view when waking up was probably the most beautiful over the last few days, except for the cloudy sky. Right at the lake we started to prepare our breakfast, when the first gulls already appeared. No later than the moment the toast was unwrapped, they began to approach screaming. By that I don’t mean a normal seagull screech, but really screaming loudly, aggressively, with their necks stretched towards the ground and waddling towards the camper and the toast inside. 😂

The longer we sat there giving them nothing, the closer they got, until we finally finished and wrapped up, hoping they wouldn’t just fly into the car. Without any more arguments with the seagulls, we then made our way to the starting point of our hike today, about a half hour drive away.

At the parking lot at the base of the mountain, we were just packing our backpacks for the trail when two chickens walked around the corner. You don’t exactly expect chickens right next to the highway either. 😆

A few approaches from the chickens later, however, we started hiking.

Maunga Kākaramea / Rainbow Mountain

A few minutes walk from the parking lot you already reach the first viewpoint, from where you can see over the turquoise crater lake and to the red and white rock walls.

Maunga Kākaramea (mountain of colored earth) - officially also known as Rainbow Mountain - is a 743 m high dacite volcano located between Rotorua and Taupō on the North Island Volcanic Plateau. It is easily recognized by its colored slopes.

The mountain is volcanic in origin and still visibly steams in some places, but has cooled in recent years.

A few minor viewpoints and some muddy 350 vertical meters later, we already reached the summit, where it was surprisingly windy.

The green pasture hills overlooked here looked almost unnatural. Exactly through the middle led the highway on which we came here from Rotorua.

Te Tihi O Ruru (Owl’s Seat) is the ancient name of the peak and belongs to the tribal area of the Ngati Tahu-Ngati Whaoa, descended from two ancestors: Tahumatua, who was the most important ancestor, and his grandson Whaoa, who came several generations later.

Tahumatua came on his own waka. The traditional narratives of the natives assume that his arrival in New Zealand was before the great migration of the Māori, which probably took place about 1450 AD. In later centuries, it was primarily the descendants of Whaoa who inhabited this area, which was often used as a refuge.

The Te Ranga Trail is unique because it is influenced by the Waiotapu geothermal system, which is several thousand years old. It was significantly affected by the eruption of Mount Tarawera about 650 years ago. At that time, many hydrothermal eruptions were triggered in the Waiotapu area.

After a short snack, we started our descent. When we arrived at the top, we were still the only visitors, but in the meantime there had been several more and also on the way down more came to meet us.

On the way up, the ground was already very slippery in places, which did not exactly make the descent easier. 😅

Just as on the rock walls, there were also places on the path again and again with prominent red soil.

There is also a mountain biking trail crossing the mountain, but it takes a different turn down. At the end of this turnoff is a natural hot spring, which we wanted to visit briefly at the end.

Kerosene Creek

About 10 minutes of gravel road later, we reached the relatively full parking lot. Since today was Sunday, we were probably not the only ones who had this idea. There was even a sign posted there that you should always keep your head above water. The reason for this is that in such natural warm springs there are often brain-eating amoebas, which could otherwise enter the body through the nose.

Kerosene Creek is a geothermally heated creek, with hot water from a natural spring underground bubbling into the cool water of the creek, creating pleasantly warm water.

Bathers have piled up smooth rocks to create small hot pools next to the waterfall.

Because of the high rush, we didn’t want to bother looking for a spot as well, so we drove back to Rotorua instead. There we had lunch with a nice view at the lake and fed the seagulls with our remaining crumbs before we left again towards Auckland.

With that, our first little trip with the camper was already over. 🚐