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  Orakei Korako, Auckland, New Zealand
Saturday, January 30, 2010

After a great evening at the Marae, Nigel and I woke up early and went to the Rotorua Museum for a bit to look at some sculptures.

We then met up with Harish & Kumal, a couple from the U.K. whom we'd met on our Maori tour. Nigel and I were headed to a geo-thermal island, and invited them to join. Harish and Kumal are both G.I. surgeons who are thinking of leaving the U.K. Nigel, Narinder and Isabel emigrated to NZ three years ago from there, so the whole time, he was trying to convince them to move to NZ.

I joked that he just wanted his own G.I. doctors to move into the guest house he's planning to build. Not knowing what G.I. stood for, I told him.  "Oh! I thought they had something to do with the army!"

The island is a 2 minute ferry ride from the mainland.  After disembarking, we stepped onto a wooden walkway which takes you throughout the 2 hour tramp.  It is advised that you stay on the walkway at all times, as there are geysers and boiling water which could explode without warning.

The colors of the terrain are magnificent.  Rich oranges and salt-white streaks from all the boiling salt water and molten gunk (that's a technical geological word).

We witnessed geysers erupting and boiling mud, steam rising from the ground and hot water flowing over rocks.

We made our way to a stairway that led downward to a turquoise-walled cave.  The water at the bottom was warm, so I kicked off my flip-flops and waded in.

All around the island, the water, whether still or boiling hot, was crystal-clear.  It was really cool to see al this activity. To think that it could really erupt like a volcano at any minute was a bit sobering.
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Thanks,
J

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Rotorua Museum	Flowing	Nigel & Harish	Smooooke on the Waaater...
A Fire in the Sky	Steaming	Somethin's gonna blow...	Welcome to the Island
Me in the cave	Looking up from the bottom	A view from down low	Nigel, Kumal & Harish

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