Calvino Travels

Center an Iframe Champagne Pools at Wai-o-tapu You are a traveller. You are sat in an outdoor theatre, bowl-shaped and curving round a small white slab of rock. There is a woman emptying a sack of soap into a hole in the top. Your companions are beside you. The bearded one is desperately taking pictures, afraid to miss the crucial moment. The curly-haired one is leaning backwards, worried that the Lady Knox Geyser at Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland will spray boiling water on the audience. It doesn't. It erupts, sending a white jet of water and steam straight up into the air. Lady Knox Geyser at Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland You continue your journey around Wai-o-tapu and visit the Champagne Pool, named for its bubbling surface. It is a 62m well that’s filled with water, grazing the earth's burning crust and drawing heat up. The water steams at 72°C. There is also Echo Lake, a lake dyed green by algae which grows in its warm waters. You walk around...

The Emerald Lakes viewed on the Tongariro Crossing You are a traveller. You grip white-knuckled to the sides of your seat as the Nissan Caravan swings heavily around tight corners on the Forgotten World Highway in New Zealand. Keane’s groundbreaking album Hopes and Fears  is playing on the radio. The bearded one is in the driver’s seat, he's monologuing about Donald Trump or something like that. He's not paying attention to the road or any of the recommended speed signs. The curly haired one, to your left, is agreeing with him politely, but you know that she is in her own world, thinking about food. "So I'm thinking we should have the curry tonight," she interjects. "Yeah, that sounds good." Says the bearded one, but you know he isn't listening, and that this will have consequences later. From the Forgotten World Highway The Forgotten World Highway is 148km of slow road that curves around farmland and nature reserves. It's the ...