Rotorua, the thermal area

Rotorua is famous for it's thermal features. Here the Pacific plate is buckling under the Australian plate and the magma is as little as 2 km. below the surface. Our first stop was Wai-0-tapu thermal wonderland with it's mud pots, thermal pools and craters with hot springs. The water ranges from clear water to a black oily water (good enough for kerosene lanterns) to a bright green color from colloidal sulphur.

Devils Bath

We then went to the 10:15 eruption of the Lady Knox geyser. In the 19th century, prisoners used to wash their clothes in this pool. But they were surprised by a geyser. The soap would break the surface tension of the water causing the geyser to go off. The geyser naturally goes off every 24-72 hours, but they use soap to have it erupt at 10:15 every day.



The area we visited was Waimanga (black water) valley. This used to have large pink and white terraces until the volcano blew in 1867 destroying the terraces. From 1900 until an earth slide occurred in 1904, this was the location of a geyser 400 meters in height.

This whole area remind you of a tropical Yellowstone - fumerals, steaming lakes and rivers, the steaming Cathedral rocks, but with palm trees around it instead of fir trees.

Cathedral Rocks

In the evening we had a home stay with Donna and Collin, who live in the outskirts of the city, where lots are large enough for sheep, a cow, or a horse. Others on our tour actually were on dairy farms or sheep ranches. Collin imports chicken eggs and incubates them for the local market. It was a fairly quiet evening, discussing their life in New Zealand and our mutual enjoyment of travel.