Hiking Waimangu’s Volcanic Valley

After Wai-O-Tapu, I travelled to Waimangu Volcanic Valley, fourteen kilometres south of Rotorua. I walked four kilometres to the jetty, down the slope past volcanic craters which blew out over a century earlier.

Passing toetoe grass, tea trees and black fern trees along with hot stream, fumes rose like mist, from obscure cracks in the path, from lakes and pools. The crater-lake reflected sparkling ripples before swallowed by another rush of steam.