TravelMole UK’s Graham McKenzie’s latest NZ blog
TravelMole UK’s Graham McKenzie has been touring New Zealand at a difficult time for the country.
Christchurch is still recovering from last week’s terrible earthquake and while our thoughts are very much with that fine city, it’s important for New Zealand that tourists continue to visit the country and do not change their travel plans.
Here’s Graham’s latest blog from New Zealand
So I have now reached the eastern lower half of the North Island and an area called the Bay of Plenty which really should be called the Bay of Enormousness, as it is so huge.
In this area there are lots and lots of attractions but one particular thing caught my eye, White Island.
At last I thought something with which I am familiar White Island equals the Isle of Wight. Wrong!!
On the short boat trip out to the White version my suspicions were raised when the guide issued us with yellow hard hats, a la Bob the Builder, plus matching gas masks and then proceeded to tell us what to do in case the island blew up while we there.
White Island is in fact a living, working, fully paid up member of the volcano club and this trip was about to take us on to terra eruptus.
Once you arrive you are immediately met by a strong smell of sulphur, remnants of earlier attempts to mine the mineral, and clouds and clouds of steam. The small babbling brooks are in fact boiling brooks, as the water is warm enough to cook your eggs in.
The guide carefully takes you step by step until you reach the main crater, which is about the size of an average village pond, but there the similarity ends.
The water is roughly 75 degrees centigrade, a luminous green colour and steam continuously pours from it. I just about heard the cackles from Beelzebub because this looked like hell on earth.
An absolutely fascinating and enjoyable trip but it was not over yet. On the way back the Bay of Plenty threw up more of its bounty. I have seen dolphins before at sea but this was no school it was more like the local education authority of dolphins as they came at the boat in huge numbers.
They came leaping in sequence in threes, fours plus parent and baby combos. I fully expected one to leap across the boat slap me in the chops a couple of times before saying, in flipper talk, ‘What you looking at?’
The answer would have been ‘an area of truly outstanding beauty and interest.’
Here are all of Graham’s blog postings:
Feb 21 – https://www.travelmole.com/stories/1146471.php
Feb 23 – https://www.travelmole.com/stories/1146523.php
Feb 28 – https://www.travelmole.com/stories/1146571.php
Mar 01 – https://www.travelmole.com/stories/1146596.php
David
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
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Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
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