Sunrise
Anything we did after Hobbiton was always going to feel like the encore after the headline act. But still buzzing from our morning among the hobbits, we drove the hour to Rotorua, which is a place you smell before you see. The sulphur hangs in the air as a reminder that this whole region sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the restless edge of the Earth’s tectonic plates. Mount Ngauruhoe New Zealand straddles the boundary between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate, which is why it has so many volcanoes, earthquakes, and incredible landscapes. The North Island in particular is shaped by volcanic forces and our next destinations of Taupō, Rotorua, Tongariro are all part of the Taupō Volcanic Zone, one of the most active on Earth. Emerald Lakes on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing Rotorua is the poster child for the volcanic area, a town where the geothermal energy bubbles constantly beneath the earth’s crust, leaking out into steaming vents and simmering lakes. For centuries Māori comm...
