The Buried Village and Rainbow Springs

More beautiful pictures from Rotorua, New Zealand!

This is Blue Lake.  We drove past on our way to the Buried Village and we thought it was stunning.  We stopped at a look out between two lakes, this one and Green Lake.  Blue Lake really does look blue.  It gets its color from the reflection caused by white rhyolite and pumice on its bottom.

Green Lake really does look green.  It gets its color from its shallow sandy bottom.  Green Lake is owned by the Maori people and it is sacred.  No boating, fishing or swimming permitted.

It is beautiful how the New Zealand Fern tree unrolls its new branches.

The Buried Village is an amazing and interesting attraction near Rotorua.  The kids enjoyed pumping water in the recreated pioneer village that is part of the museum.

The Buried Village was once a bustling village at the center of New Zealand tourism.  It was the closest village to one of the world's wonders, the Pink and White Terraces.  On June 9-10 in 1886, Mount Tarawera erupted, covering the village in hot mud and boulders and destroying the Pink and White Terraces.  Some of the building from the village have been excavated and restored.  The museum was fascinating and the nature of this are is exceptional!

We hiked around the area where the village was located.  There was a beautiful stream.  We followed it and found waterfalls!

The mountain in the distance on the right is Mount Tarawera.  It's partially covered by clouds, so we didn't get to see the top of it.

On our drive back to Rotorua, we found a red wood forest!  It turns out that these red woods are just babies and they are grown from seeds from the California red woods.  The soil in New Zealand causes the trees to grow much faster than they do in California, but also, because the trees are going so fast, the wood is less dense, soft and brittle. 

We spent the afternoon at Rainbow Springs, the Kiwi Wildlife Park.  There was a great big splash ride that the children especially enjoyed.  I think we rode it about 15 times.  It got to the point that the people working the on/off for the ride let us stay in our little boat and keep going.  Too fun!

We did manage to see a couple of sleeping, shy Kiwi.  Kiwi are nocturnal and very shy so they are difficult to spot.

This was our last day in Rotorua.  Next up, Hot Water Beach, our final destination before we head back to Singapore.