when the park opened at 8.30 to avoid the herd, but because we’d driven so far in our search for a walk, this meant a 7am start.

Getting there early did mean we missed most of the crowds, but it also had another advantage, we’d discovered that all of these steamy thermal areas looked far more impressive in the early morning and late evening, as the air was colder and damper, and much more steam was generated. The thermal wonderland was no exception, and as we crossed the bridge over the hot stream into the park it was as if we’d stepped foot on another planet!! The view was over a lush green valley with steam rising all over the place, and the foulest smell so far!! We were treated to all sorts of geothermal features, ranging from collapsed craters with eerie hissing noises emerging from the bottom, through to boiling mud pools, and brightly coloured lakes. The highlight was the

Champagne Pool, a huge bottle green lake with a bright orange edge which fizzed with bubbles of carbon dioxide emerging from the deep. Snaking it’s way down the valley from this was the Crimson terrace - the biggest silica terrace in New Zealand after the destruction of the Pink and White terraces. We managed to get through about two thirds of the park before it was time to go and see the Geezer being coaxed into erupting! It was pretty much as cheesy as we’d feared, but an interesting sight nonetheless, we figured it would be Yellowstone before we really got excited by a geyser!! The predicted stampede back to the park wasn’t all that bad, and we managed to avoid most of the people as we were starting two thirds of the way through, so our cunning plan had worked pretty well! The rest of the park was also really cool, it’s hard to describe the features, probably best if you have a look at the photos to see what I mean!! (It really makes you realise the incredible power and unpredictability of the