sitting in a boiling river with thunder overhead..

When we pulled into the car park at kaerosen creek all we could see was a beautiful forest filled with pine trees and also some trees that look almost like palm trees mixed in. The creek was a 2 minute walk from the car park down a tree filled dirt path. The minute we saw the creek thick steam was rising from the water creating a misty forest look.. Very neat. We wandered down the path to the end where the creek runs down a 8ft waterfall and into a hot pool below. We cautiously dipped our feet into the water and found it was a surprising bath water temperature (And I mean a hot bath water temperature) we crawled down the rock steps and down into the springs, it was shortly thereafter it began to rain. The cool rain drops felt great on the face and made a nice contrast to the warm waters below. The water got deeper the closer you got to the waterfall but you had to be careful not to sink your feet into the sand, the deeper your feet sink in, the hotter the sand gets - I imagine it would get to a point where it would burn as it got very hot.
As we sat enjoying the only bath we have had since leaving Asia a thunderstorm rolled in right over our heads and the booming thunder surrounded us in our forest cove. Kirb and I went to the top of the creek and body surfed down catching some toes and other various bodyparts on the rocks as we went. We spent about 40min there and then headed back into town to pick up the remaining missing ingrediants for the lasagne we were having that evening. Kaerosen Creek is the only free thermal pools you can visit in Rotorua and the settings is just magnificent we are looking forward to going back.
We have pictures but the blog website has had too much rum and eggnog (Which you cant get here by the way!!!!) and is ignoring my requests to add photos.. So.. we will have to do this later!