The adventures of Jeremy and Bridget part 2: Days 9 + 10

Day 9 - Geothermal Parks (Wai-O-Tapu and Rotorua)
Today, we ventured to some geothermal parks to check out the geology. Rotorua is along an active fault line but, unlike California, the pressure and energy are constantly escaping to the surface. Which means that it looks like the place is constantly burning (there are plumes of steam all over the place). Wai-O-Tapu is a park created around one of the most active areas and demonstrates some pretty cool volcano-esque features shown on TV and such - water boiling through cracks in the rock to the surface, sulfur wafting out of collapsed sinkholes eaten from beneath over the centuries by the acid and minerals, bubbling mud pits fit for witches brew, and lots and lots of stinky steam. Rotorua itself has some geothermal features dotted throughout the city. And since the water comes up at a toasty 100C, it's not to be trifled with. At the end of the day, we were invited to join our gracious AirBnB hosts for dinner and drinks on the first-story patio. We ate and had a wonderful time chatting as the sun set and the moon rose over the lake playing hide-and-seek with the clouds moving through the region.

Day 10 - Waitomo
We drove a few hours this morning to experience the world-renowned (or so we were told) glow worm caves in Waitomo. Unfortunately, cameras and videography were strictly prohibited, so you'll have to just imagine floating down a pitch-black river with the ceiling overhead illuminated by thousands of tiny specks of bioluminescent glowworms. It was bright enough to make out the features of the people sitting around us. The glowworms use the light to attract insects toward them and then capture them in hanging threads of sticky web-like material. After the tour, we got the included lunch platters and headed back to Rotorua and checked out the downtown a bit. There was quite a food scene, but most of the shops closed at 5:30, so the shopping got cut short. But we grilled out back at the AirBnB and sketched out some plans for tomorrow before settling in for the night.