It was too hot at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, really, and too crowded. I hadn't been in years, though, and it was nice to see so many different colours of water and rock and mud. It was interesting, too, to contemplate as a tourist phenomenon - so many of Rotorua's attractions have their origins in the nineteenth century, which was the same period in which the idea of 'landscape' and viewing from above or outside became popular. It was also the same period in which theologists argued that New Zealand was proof of the existence of God. I haven't thought about this deeply, but I'd like to do so at some point.
