This past weekend, we took a program-wide field trip up to
Lake Taupo. Since I’m taking Biology 2100, we had a lot more mandatory
activities that we had to participate in. In addition to the 12 mile hike, we
did lots of sketches of rock cuts, visited a Geothermal energy plant, visited “Craters
of the Moon” (a Geothermal park), and Huka Falls.
The Geothermal energy plant was so much larger than I expected it to be. This region has a lot of heat beneath the surface from volcanic activity that it can provide most of the power for the Taupo region just by being harvested the correct way. It's just not a resource you get to use in most parts of the United States.
Of the trips that just my class went on, I definitely
enjoyed Craters of the Moon the most. I’ve never seen steam just float out of the ground
like that. If I hadn’t known what they were and been able to see them up close,
I probably would have just thought the ground was on fire. There were
fumaroles, craters, and mudpools all emitting hot steam from below the surface
of the Earth. The mudpool was probably the coolest part because I’ve never seen
anything boil except on a stove. When we had about 5 minutes left to get back to the bus, Brittany and I decided to sprint up the path that led to the lookout over the whole park. The loop is supposed to take about 20 minutes, but we managed to do the whole trail in less than 10 and enjoy the view for about 30 seconds before power-walking back down the hill again. It was definitely worth it, but I wish I had had more time to enjoy it.
If I was to go back and explore the Taupo area more, I
definitely would go back to Huka falls. It was just a really nice, really
pretty area with a river and a waterfall. Unfortunately, since some lucky
people on our trip had appoints to be picked up for skydiving, we could only
stay for about 20 minutes.
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