All I could think of was 'Lord of the Rings', the movie and it's animated character, 'Smeagol'. I think he emerges out of mud pool in the movie if I am right. The place was nothing like we imagined. It was on my mom's top list, that amazing.
Wai-O-Tapu in Maori is 'scared water' and it is an active geothermal which we could smell it from a distance. We were heading to Rotorua for a place similar to this and were only 27km away but we decided to turn around for we knew we would be late to get back to Hamilton. So, we stopped by at Waiotapu. The area had many hot springs and boiling pools. Mud pool may be the favourite place in North island. For me, it was Taupo but spluttering mud makes you think every non living thing is living too, in a way. The belching holes burp, spit and hiccups just like kids would do and it was amazing, nothing like you have seen before. If you were to be alone which I was for a while and it was a different world with sound effects of plopping and belching and hissing..
We also found a 'secret spot'. The place is known as 'Secret Spot' but the secret's obviously well out. I think it would be a nice place to come with candles at night, so cozy and peace although very close to the road. A nice spot to relax on the journey between Taupo & Rotorua. We would go into the stream but it was filled with some drunken swimmers and we decided not to go in.
