Rotorua

The Guysers Erupting

We docked Mount Maunganui near Tauranga and picked up a hire car to drive to Rotorua. An easy drive of about an hour and we approached the town. Really weird to see steam rising from fenced off rocks in a park. We decided to visit Whakarewarewa, a living thermal village. There are about 25 Maori families who live in the village all descended from a single couple. Visitors are escorted through by family members between 8:30 and 5:00 every day.

Whakarewarewa Boiling Mud Pool

What an amazing experience! The boiling pools of water are fenced off to prevent tourists from falling in and killing themselves. Throughout the village are wooden steam boxes sitting on hot rocks on the ground. Natural pressure cookers. They just leave uncooked meat and veg in the boxes. Come back later and dinner is cooked. There at Whakarewarewa are also two geysers on the edge of the village and we saw both erupting while we were there. The smell of sulfur is all around and you can see the white and yellow reside edging some of the pools. The village even has its own boiling mud pool which we were told has the consistency of quick sand. All pretty amazing.

Frying Pan Lake - pH 3

After leaving the village we drove a few kilometers south to Waimangu. The site of a very recent volcanic eruption. June 1886 saw a volcano blow and devastate the surrounding countryside. The volcano has blown a number of times since the last being in 1917. What is left is utterly breathtaking. The vegetation has reclaimed the land but there is still primeval geothermal activity. Streaming rocks, boiling sulphuric acid pools,



small geysers. It looks like the beginning of time. We had enough time before the park closed to walk a 3 kilometer trail around lakes, craters and along streams of boiling, acid runoff. The colors were amazing. Green, yellow, reds, white the residue from various toxic minerals. I have never seen anything like it.

Overflow from Frying Pan lake