More mud...

Just some more random pictures of cool geothermal stuff. I took these at Hell's Gate which is a geothermal park just outside Rotorua. One of the interesting things about Hell's Gate is that it

was given this english name by George Bernard Shaw when he visited because it freaked him out so much (it was as close to Hell as he ever wanted to come). In Maori it's called Tikitere. Anyway, the geothermal stuff still spins me out - lakes of bubbling mud which are 115 degrees, steam vents, sulfur pools. It's all so bizzare. And often set in the middle of a pine forest or town or something equally random.

Like this, the biggest hot water waterfall in the southern hemisphere, randomly set in the middle of the forest....It has an average temperature of 40 degrees celcius - would be very nice to stand under I think!

At Hell's Gate there are heaps of little bubbling mud pools, and there's even a mini volcano (it comes up to my waist) which explodes every now and then!
There are mud baths you can have here too - would be kind of fun I think (a good thing to do with visitors!)