Walking in New Zealand: Rotorua Volcanic Landscape

Rotorua has a lovely group of older buildings in a park like setting. Scattered here and there are steaming pools and bubling volcanic springs. There is a stench of hydrogen sulphide in the air, but your nose rapidly becomes numbed to it.

We were recommended to see the Wai-0-Tapu thermal area.

The Lady Knox geyser is set off every morning at 10.15, so you need to arrive in time to get your ticket, and then drive the short distance to the geyser.

A short talk is followed by the erruption of water

The thermal area is quite extensive, with well signed paths and routes and explanation boards.

Boiling cauldrons of mud, oil and sulpurous steam

You must stay on the paths, and keep a close watch on your children

Coloured pools of clear steaming water can be quite beautiful

or look like an industrial waste land

A glimpse of another azure lake through the trees

A waterfall of solid silica

And coloured lakes that change each day

On your way out, do follow the signs for the mud pools. These slurp and burp beside the road.

Rainbow mountain is a steep track past these steaming cliffs to a fire control lookout at the top (not open to the public). The views from the top are well worth the climb

Lake Rotorua fills a volcanic caldera, and smaller volcanic craters can be seen in the satellite view below. Not the plave I would choose to build a large town - or to live!

Extra map data is copyright Peter Thomson. Scripts are copyright of the original authors.

Your Name:
Your Email:
Subject:
In reply to message (delete if not applicable):
Display heading
Security Code:

Checking for files that match search criteria.

The following files on this site match your query

/new_zealand/rotorua.html

Search for any topic in this forum

Forum
Content
heading
heading
IP
Email
display number of messages
Newest at top of page
Search
Show dates
Show all topics
Copyright Peter Thomson 2008-May-16