Situated just outside of Rotorua is the thermal area known as Wai-o-tapu, meaning Sacred Waters. Winner of the Best Visitor Attraction in the 2002 Tourism Awards, the area boasts a colourful and diverse range of geysers, mud pools, mineral terraces and steaming volcanic lakes.

A large geyser was found in the early 1900s by a group of prison labourers endeavouring to wash their clothes in what appeared to be a hot spring. The action of the soap they were using had the effect of reducing the surface tension of the water contained in the geyser forcing the spring to erupt, spectacularly throwing their clothes into the air!

In 1903, the daughter of the then NZ Governor General, Lady Knox, officially christened the geyser by soaping it herself in a ceremony. From 1933 onward it has been soaped daily to view the eruption.

Today, we use a specially-made biodegradable substance to achieve the eruption. The water comes from up to 400 metres below the surface. It erupts from surface tension disruption caused by the soap-type organic substance. This allows pressure and temperature to be released and thus the violent eruption each day.

More details - Wai-o-tapu

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Australia News

Couran Cove Resort on Stradbroke Island is located only 15 minutes by ferry off Queensland's Gold Coast, close to both Brisbane and Coolangatta airports.One of the newest resorts on the Gold Coast, it offers stylish award winning architecture in an environmentally sensitive manner and numerous activities. Water sports are well catered for, there is a gymnasium and running track, mountain bikes, rock climbing, a Day Spa, 22 km of safe surf beach, a 25 metre lap pool and a separate wading pool for children. The resort has 4 restaurants and a local store with all the essentials.

Accommodation is in waterfront hotel style rooms or water front villas and lodges and self catering cabins set in the banksia forest. This resort offers a complete holiday package and excellent value for couples, families and groups alike.

More details see Couran Cove Resort.

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Pacific Island News

Fiji is one of my favourite destinations, particularly in the middle of a cold Christchurch winter where a 3 hour flight can see you emerge in tropical heat and a short boat ride later, sipping cocktails on a white sandy beach. I have just returned from a week of cruising on a private yacht and a chance to experience a variety of island resorts and local life as well.

At Malolo Island we dined up high in a pole style restaurant amongst the coconut trees and the local band were joined by the chef who played the ice bucket. It seems they can all sing and dance and everyone just chips in on the entertainment front. We played volleyball on Castaway Island - New Zealand versus Australia with alot of Fijians thrown in - I would have to say they were better than all of us, although alot of cheating went on as well.

We went out to Waya, in the Yasawa's and were welcomed ashore on a remote Island by a group of goat hunters with an impromptu song. This particular part of the island once housed a resort owned by an Italian who mysteriously disappeared a few years back - Mafia connections so the story goes. It is now a cluster of gutted bures sitting sadly behind a beautiful white sandy beach fringed with coconuts.

We cruised past the beautiful Vomo Island with its perfect coconut fringed white sand beaches and snorkelled and swam with the fish and coral in the comfortably warm waters.

We visited a local village and were formally welcomed by the Chief of the Mamanuca group in his home, we took books to the local school and met the principal there who took us around his classrooms.

Mostly it is the charm and open friendliness of the people that keeps the regulars going back to Fiji - I will continue to be one of them!

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