NZ +19: Hell's Gate

Now this was a weird place. As well as my description, make sure you look at the website because you can find out exactly why it's as weird as it is and what's going on just underground to make it look and behave like it does. (I know the picture of the two women smothering each other in mud on the homepage makes it look like an an entirely different kind of place, but get past that...)

It was weird because I walked around the park entirely on my own, as I got there ten minutes before they let the last person in. That gives you an hour to look around before it gets dark.

And it was very disconcerting.

I'm not entirely sure if the Maori stuff on here is a warning or a welcome...



But this was defintiely a warning...



And it needed to be, because the lunar landscape was a-bubbling and a-boiling and a-smelling of sulphur like you would not believe...



...sometimes very close to the path...



...sometimes it was water seething away...



...and sometimes it was mud...



...in places, mini-volcanoes had been forced up through the surface and boiled like cauldrons...



...and elsewhere, vile-smelling sulphorous waterfalls had carved channels down the hill...



...the whole place had an eerie feel, a bit alien...



...and as dusk fell...



I was quite relieved to get back to the car.

A strange place!