The Devil went down to...Rotorua!

So, at one point in time over the past two weeks, I worked overnight 4 out of 6 nights. I cannot actually tell you how or why it happened...but at one point I was flown to another hospital to drill into a kids head and place a drain, then brought back to Starship to suck a clot out of a kids head. When all that's happening, I kind of lose track of time.

Therefore, when I finally left the hospital carpark at 7:30 Friday night, I hit the road to Rotorua with Shannon and David. I thankfully slipped into the back seat and slept most of the way. We awoke to rain Saturday morning but didn't let that dampen our spirits as we grabbed our suits and headed off to the natural hot pools. Kerosene creek was the prettiest...but not warm enough for me.

So we headed to the bridge where two streams (one cold, one hot) merge and you can move further up or downstream until you find the perfect spot. Awesome!

After we raised our core body temps a few degrees, we headed to the Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Wonderland, home of the devil and his playground. It was drizzling when we started...

then it switched to pouring rain about the time we got to the devil's inkpots...

So we took shelter from the storm at the views over Artist's Palette...the cold and the rain made it all steamy...

We crossed the Terrace then trekked through the Sacred Forest...

And onwards to Frying Pan Flat and Lake Ngakoro

Bird's Nest Crater
And Lake Ngakoro which really can't be too vile because there are ducks swimming in it...

The champagne pool was gorgeous...but you only caught a glimpse of it when the wind blew the steam away...like a hidden surprise beneath the steam...

And we passed by Devil's Bath on the way out of the park...we definitely needed a hot shower and a few logs on the fire after this afternoon!

I'll post on the Waimangu Volcanic Valley tomorrow night...need to get some sleep before work tomorrow! You never know what that will bring!