Set out for a drive and walk around a volcanic area but on the way saw signs to Waimangu volcanic valley and decided on that despite the cost! About 4km downhill walk along the valley created by a volcanic explosion in 1886 and a few later disturbances. Various vividly coloured crater lakes, steam vents mini geysers and the largest hot spring in the world. Well organised walkway but it took us over two hours and at the end we just made the scheduled return bus by a minute. Traditional exit through the gift shop'to the cafe where we found the first filter coffee and a bottomless one at that. Torrential rain arrived and we waited for it to ease then dashed to the van. Back home for a brief rest then off to the timeshare boat trip. Collected swimming gear and boarded the Aqua Patio catamaran (bit like a floating pontoon with arm chairs and a canopy with side curtains - much neded as it rained all the way to the resort and all the way back. The hot baths turned out to be a range of concrete tanks fed from one another, the water gradually cooling as it progressed to the lake. Top pool really was pretty hot but the rest were quite pleasant. Pervading smell of H2S or bad eggs and the water was full of minerals. Surprisingly the skin doesn't go all wrinkly even after an hour in the water unlike a hot bath at home.
Planned bbq rained off and beef (from the mad butcher) was fried instead. Just managed to catch up on the archers then the resort's wifi failed completely so back to mobile broadband - not sure how much that's costing, very slow and measured in megabytes rather than the gigabytes I have on the mobile package in the uk.
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