Pink Terraces
White TerracesSunday, 25 May 2008
Pink and White Terraces
The famous Pink & White Terraces were also destroyed - they must have been totally awesome to see.
Pink Terraces
White Terraces
Pink Terraces White Terraces
Waimangu Geyser
Waimangu geyser: the world’s largest The Waimangu (‘black water’) geyser was the largest geyser recorded anywhere in the world, erupting between 1900 and 1904. The dark plume contains mud and blocks of rock.
This photograph was taken in 1903.
Scientist Humphrey Haines witnessed the eruptions in January 1901, and his wife wrote the following account:
‘There was a small burst, followed by a gigantic explosion, far exceeding in magnitude anything previously witnessed. A vast column of black water was projected upwards, rising in an apparently solid body … Then for a moment it seemed to pause, but in another instant its apex burst outwards and a torrent of inky water streaked downwards to meet and lose itself in the snowy billows which rolled majestically upwards.’
The geyser’s life was brief and spectacular. Eruptions of muddy water and large rocks to heights of 150 metres were common, and there were occasional super-eruptions to the remarkable height of 460 metres. In comparison, the tallest currently-active geyser in the world (Steamboat geyser, in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming) erupts to maximum heights of 100 metres. The top of Auckland’s Sky Tower is about 330 metres above street level.
Not surprisingly, a tourist industry sprang up around Waimangu geyser. Accommodation for tourists, overlooking the geyser basin, was built in the summer of 1902–3. Throughout 1903, the geyser increased in activity, and increasing numbers of visitors flocked to see the spectacle. However, a tragic event occurred that year: four tourists ventured closer to get a better view, but were swept away and killed by a sudden eruption.
This photograph was taken in 1903.
Scientist Humphrey Haines witnessed the eruptions in January 1901, and his wife wrote the following account:
‘There was a small burst, followed by a gigantic explosion, far exceeding in magnitude anything previously witnessed. A vast column of black water was projected upwards, rising in an apparently solid body … Then for a moment it seemed to pause, but in another instant its apex burst outwards and a torrent of inky water streaked downwards to meet and lose itself in the snowy billows which rolled majestically upwards.’
The geyser’s life was brief and spectacular. Eruptions of muddy water and large rocks to heights of 150 metres were common, and there were occasional super-eruptions to the remarkable height of 460 metres. In comparison, the tallest currently-active geyser in the world (Steamboat geyser, in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming) erupts to maximum heights of 100 metres. The top of Auckland’s Sky Tower is about 330 metres above street level.
Not surprisingly, a tourist industry sprang up around Waimangu geyser. Accommodation for tourists, overlooking the geyser basin, was built in the summer of 1902–3. Throughout 1903, the geyser increased in activity, and increasing numbers of visitors flocked to see the spectacle. However, a tragic event occurred that year: four tourists ventured closer to get a better view, but were swept away and killed by a sudden eruption.
The geyser began to wane in 1904, and by November of that year activity stopped as suddenly and inexplicably as it had started.
25th April Friday, Anzac Day – Rotorua
The morning of ANZAC day is when almost every business is closed as a sign of respect for the Australian and New Zealand armed forces. Anzac Day is commemorated by Australia and New Zealand on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.
Luckily the Waimangu Volcanic Valley was open when we arrived. It’s a very interesting and well looked after site. The before and after photos in the small museum clearly show the complete and utter devastation after the eruptions – literally nothing remained.
Waimangu, Mount Tarawera and Lake Rotomahama exploded on the night of the 10th June 1886 killing 7 Europeans and more than 100 Maori villagers.
The three of us walked along a string of geographic features created by the Waimangu explosion, from Southern Crater to Echo Crater with its Frying Pan Lake and on to Inferno Crater.
Inferno Crater contains a pale blue lake which fills and overflows and then sinks again over a period of 5 to 7 weeks. When full the water is 80° C!
We climbed the Mt. Haszard walking trail above Inferno Crater and alongside some other craters and then down to rejoin the main trail towards Lake Roromahama past Iodine Pool, the Buttresses and onto Warbrick Terrace.
By Frying Pan Lake was the site of the largest geyser in the world – it would erupt up to a height of 400m. It started in 1900 and stopped in 1904 – but not after killing a group of tourists who got too close.
Our driver/navigator was Ngata (pronounced nutter) (he had a very, very long name which he only said once) and he was very funny with a joke at everyone’s expense – especially the Australians in the group.
At the village we were greeted (all four of the WAKA) according to Maori tradition
As there were 4 WAKA we had four chief to accept the greeting.
We were treated to a song and dance and then to a HANGI meal (traditionally cooked – steamed- underground. All in all, excellent fun.
Ngata took us back to the camp, making the various nationalities sing songs (the best was from Chile). Every time we did something wrong, Ngata threatened to throw us out the canoe, Jo-Ann and Mum couldn’t sing a Singaporean song so they were nearly ejected!
Ngata was great with names & faces & nationalities, he remembered us all.
As we entered Rotorua, Ngata started singing “she’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes” as he drove round and round a roundabout about 10 times.
A Great Night!
Luckily the Waimangu Volcanic Valley was open when we arrived. It’s a very interesting and well looked after site. The before and after photos in the small museum clearly show the complete and utter devastation after the eruptions – literally nothing remained.
Waimangu, Mount Tarawera and Lake Rotomahama exploded on the night of the 10th June 1886 killing 7 Europeans and more than 100 Maori villagers.
The three of us walked along a string of geographic features created by the Waimangu explosion, from Southern Crater to Echo Crater with its Frying Pan Lake and on to Inferno Crater.
Frying Pan Lake is so named because of the sound made by the hot springs & fumaroles around the lake. It’s the world’s largest hot spring with a volume of 200,000 cubic meters with an average temperature of 55° Celsius.
Inferno Crater contains a pale blue lake which fills and overflows and then sinks again over a period of 5 to 7 weeks. When full the water is 80° C!
We climbed the Mt. Haszard walking trail above Inferno Crater and alongside some other craters and then down to rejoin the main trail towards Lake Roromahama past Iodine Pool, the Buttresses and onto Warbrick Terrace.
By Frying Pan Lake was the site of the largest geyser in the world – it would erupt up to a height of 400m. It started in 1900 and stopped in 1904 – but not after killing a group of tourists who got too close.
In the evening we went to the Tamaki Maori Village. A coach (or rather a coach pretending to be a WAKA) named KEA collected us from the campsite and took us, via Rotorua town, to the village.
Our driver/navigator was Ngata (pronounced nutter) (he had a very, very long name which he only said once) and he was very funny with a joke at everyone’s expense – especially the Australians in the group.
At the village we were greeted (all four of the WAKA) according to Maori tradition
As there were 4 WAKA we had four chief to accept the greeting.
After the welcome, we all wandered around the village – people were hiding behind the buildings and jumping out to frighten the visitors. I took a photo of Mum with a Maori warrior twice her size .
We were treated to a song and dance and then to a HANGI meal (traditionally cooked – steamed- underground. All in all, excellent fun.
Ngata took us back to the camp, making the various nationalities sing songs (the best was from Chile). Every time we did something wrong, Ngata threatened to throw us out the canoe, Jo-Ann and Mum couldn’t sing a Singaporean song so they were nearly ejected!
Ngata was great with names & faces & nationalities, he remembered us all.
As we entered Rotorua, Ngata started singing “she’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes” as he drove round and round a roundabout about 10 times.
A Great Night!
24th April – Orewa to Rotorua
Left for Rotorua, driving along SH1 and SH5 via Cambridge.
The scenery was not as attractive as the Northland. Very flat in most places ‘till we got close to Rotorua.
We saw lots of lovely house along the way, mostly single storey dwellings (in the UK they would be called bungalows) with sprawling buildings.
I hope we are not going to be disappointed with Rotorua, so much has been said about it and it’s volcanic surrounds.
We decided to camp at the Blue Lake Top 10 campsite. The lake was indeed blue – beautiful with hills behind it. You can’t see the blue from the photos but it was blue – really.
The lake is really called Lake Tikitapu.
There is a green lake nearby to it (Lake Rotokakahi), but it’s Tapu (or sacred) to the Maori and there is no swimming, boating or fishing.
We went for a walk along the lake (blue). It should have taken about 1.5 hours covering some 5.5km.
¾ long the way we lost the track (wide track – but it was getting dark) and decided to walk back the way we came. A good work out.
¾ long the way we lost the track (wide track – but it was getting dark) and decided to walk back the way we came. A good work out.
My Mum was good and she sped up and overtook Richard & I.
The reason for the speed was that it was getting dark and it would have been full dark at about 6pm. For my Mum, it was not good to get lost in the forest as there were lots of spirits to lure you to your doom. I had to keep assuring her there was a track and we were not lost. She sighed with relief when we finally came out the forest.
It was dark as we emerged and the stars were out when we finally got back to camp.
We stayed at the camp site for 3 nights.
Dinner was tuna steak, Kumara and Gem Squash, very nice.
An early night tonight! The camp site was facing the lake and was full of people by 7pm.
23rd April Kerikeri to Orewa
Kerikeri is where we started; Orewa is where we ended the day.
If only the British had known how wonderful New Zealand is, they would have kept it for themselves. I know I would have.
We stopped for lunch a little way down the coast at Pahia.
The drive was long. We got to Orewa along the SH1 highway and it seemed to take forever, finally arriving at about 6pm – we had been at the campsite before so it was easy to find things.
This time I managed to do perfect rice, so we had scallops vegetables & rice – not a bad meal.
No a great meal!
We also did some laundry tonight – lots to do it taking ½ hours to wash and 2 hours to dry.
But, before we left Kerikeri we stopped at Keriblue Ceramics and got a present for Mum. We also stopped at the Kauri Workshop where I got a lovely small wooden box made of Rimu wood, a small Kauri wood HEI-TIKI and a rounded two drawer box for Mei Mei (Yan Qi or Rachelle) as a thank you for allowing us to steal her bedroom again.
In between we visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds where the British made, effectively, New Zealand independent.
If only the British had known how wonderful New Zealand is, they would have kept it for themselves. I know I would have.
There’s a huge Maori WAKA TAUA or war canoe in the Treaty Grounds. There has to be a minimum of 71 oarsmen to control the canoe and is a copy of the first waka to reach Aoteroa (New Zealand). It is made from two Kauri trees and is 35m long. To make it took 2 years including soaking it in water.
We stopped for lunch a little way down the coast at Pahia.The drive was long. We got to Orewa along the SH1 highway and it seemed to take forever, finally arriving at about 6pm – we had been at the campsite before so it was easy to find things.
This time I managed to do perfect rice, so we had scallops vegetables & rice – not a bad meal.
No a great meal!
We also did some laundry tonight – lots to do it taking ½ hours to wash and 2 hours to dry.
Monday, 19 May 2008
22nd April - Kaiku to Kerikeri
Not satisfied with the night walk, the next morning after leaving the camp we went back to the park and did the walk by ourselves, a couple from the night walk were also there.
We got a clearer look at the kauri trees, weta and ferns etc.
It was a lovely walk, the forest was a lot bigger than it seemed at night and had a lot of kauri trees.
There are two main type of tree fern in New Zealand, the black and the silver. In the old days the Maori would use the silver fern fronds to help reflect light onto their path. It's also the national plat and is used as the New Zealand All Blacks rugby and Black Caps cricket emblem ( amongst other things)
There is group of kauri trees in the forest, called the Four Sisters, which are two trees which split to form four trunks.
Another two trees had joined at ground level and looked like upside down legs stuck into the ground.
We went along route 12 to see the biggest kauri tree in New Zealand, "Tane Mahuta" in the Waipoua National Forest. This tree has a trunk circumference = 540 inches (45 feet) 13.6m , is 169 feet high with an estimated wood volume of 8,635 cubic feet. They estimate it to be 2,100 years Its massive, smooth, gray-white trunk rises 59 feet before a branch appears.
From ere we travelled to the Ngawha Hot Springs for a soak. It is popular with the local Maori. There are 8 pools each with different temperature. It's a simple place, no commercialism here.
We still stink of sulphur even after a couple of showers. The springs also have minerals in them that turned my silver ring black! It's slowly changing back but it was a shock.
We camped at Kerikeri. A lovely campsite reached by driving down a steep hill towards the valley.
The kitchen is huge with about 20 burners as well as fridges and sinks. There were a lot of backpackers cooking pasta dishes! We cooked our marinated pork chops and ate them with kumara (sweet potatoes).
Texted Sze (Jo-Ann's brother) with the numbers of the sze of the Kauri tree so he could by 4D (a Singaporean type of lottery)
We got a clearer look at the kauri trees, weta and ferns etc.
It was a lovely walk, the forest was a lot bigger than it seemed at night and had a lot of kauri trees.
There are two main type of tree fern in New Zealand, the black and the silver. In the old days the Maori would use the silver fern fronds to help reflect light onto their path. It's also the national plat and is used as the New Zealand All Blacks rugby and Black Caps cricket emblem ( amongst other things)There is group of kauri trees in the forest, called the Four Sisters, which are two trees which split to form four trunks.
Another two trees had joined at ground level and looked like upside down legs stuck into the ground.
We went along route 12 to see the biggest kauri tree in New Zealand, "Tane Mahuta" in the Waipoua National Forest. This tree has a trunk circumference = 540 inches (45 feet) 13.6m , is 169 feet high with an estimated wood volume of 8,635 cubic feet. They estimate it to be 2,100 years Its massive, smooth, gray-white trunk rises 59 feet before a branch appears.
There was a bigger tree, on the slopes of Tutamoe, above Kaihu, stood Kairaru. This awesome tree was over three times larger than Tane Mahuta—perhaps 15,997 cubic feet of timber—larger than today's greatest redwoods, and, in its day, the largest tree in the world. It is likely that Kairaru was over 4,000 years old when fire destroyed it in the 1880's.
From ere we travelled to the Ngawha Hot Springs for a soak. It is popular with the local Maori. There are 8 pools each with different temperature. It's a simple place, no commercialism here.
We still stink of sulphur even after a couple of showers. The springs also have minerals in them that turned my silver ring black! It's slowly changing back but it was a shock.
We camped at Kerikeri. A lovely campsite reached by driving down a steep hill towards the valley.
The kitchen is huge with about 20 burners as well as fridges and sinks. There were a lot of backpackers cooking pasta dishes! We cooked our marinated pork chops and ate them with kumara (sweet potatoes).
Texted Sze (Jo-Ann's brother) with the numbers of the sze of the Kauri tree so he could by 4D (a Singaporean type of lottery)
Sunday, 18 May 2008
21st April - Orewa to Kaihu
Left Orewa and travelled along State Highway 1 (SH1) to Warkworth.
We took a detour to Leigh and Omaha Bay. Came across a tiny fishing village which was very pretty.
Jo-Ann spoke to a fisherman but he had not been able to go to sea as there was no fuel in town. Fish typically caught there are red snapper, blue cod and lobster, mussels and scallops.
We then drove to Akiri Beach for lunch. While Jo-Ann cooked a wonderful meal of pumpkin and chicken soup, I went with Jo-Ann's mum for a walk on the beach and watched a couple of fishermen and surfers.
After lunch I decided to have a go with my fishing rod in a small stream but - of course - nothing.
We then continue driving towards Wellsford. The views of the mountains, sea and beaches were great!!
Continued up the East coast of Northland, stopped at Woolworths in Dargaville for provisions and eventually arrived at our campsite at Top 10 in Kaihu.
It is a small and very well maintained site and the people running it were nice & friendly.
There were also some kids on inner tubes trying to sail down the river! (Aaah. Back in Inyanga over Easter)
We booked ourselves on a night walk through the nearby Trounson Kauri Park forest in the hope of seeing a kiwi bird.
We hurried our dinner (chicken, broccoli and noodles) so we could meet or guide, Herb, at 7:30 pm.
The aim f the walk was to find a kiwi bird, so 12 of us took a small coach and arrived at the park about 8 km from the campsite.
It was a full moon so that we could see quite a lot without the torches we were given and of which we were told how NOT to use them.
In the first 3 minutes of the walk we saw a possum and then an old disused kiwi nest, empty for 10 years.
We walked a round but didn't see a Kiwi but heard one close by - very loud. We also introduced to the great Kauri tree. We saw several giant trees of about 700 to 800 years old and one estimated to be abut 1200 years old.
We saw Weta that eat the dead Kauri - about 45 cm long including their feelers with bodies about 4 or 5 cm long. Herb said that the Weta had ears on it's knees - a lot like a teenager then!
We also say an eel, a kauri fish and 3 crayfish in a tiny stream pool.
Unfortunately we saw no kiwi. A young boy with us said that he had been out 20 times and had never seen a kiwi - a bit of a jinx then?
We took a detour to Leigh and Omaha Bay. Came across a tiny fishing village which was very pretty.
Jo-Ann spoke to a fisherman but he had not been able to go to sea as there was no fuel in town. Fish typically caught there are red snapper, blue cod and lobster, mussels and scallops.We then drove to Akiri Beach for lunch. While Jo-Ann cooked a wonderful meal of pumpkin and chicken soup, I went with Jo-Ann's mum for a walk on the beach and watched a couple of fishermen and surfers.
After lunch I decided to have a go with my fishing rod in a small stream but - of course - nothing.
We then continue driving towards Wellsford. The views of the mountains, sea and beaches were great!!
Continued up the East coast of Northland, stopped at Woolworths in Dargaville for provisions and eventually arrived at our campsite at Top 10 in Kaihu.
It is a small and very well maintained site and the people running it were nice & friendly.
There were also some kids on inner tubes trying to sail down the river! (Aaah. Back in Inyanga over Easter)
We booked ourselves on a night walk through the nearby Trounson Kauri Park forest in the hope of seeing a kiwi bird.
We hurried our dinner (chicken, broccoli and noodles) so we could meet or guide, Herb, at 7:30 pm.
The aim f the walk was to find a kiwi bird, so 12 of us took a small coach and arrived at the park about 8 km from the campsite.
It was a full moon so that we could see quite a lot without the torches we were given and of which we were told how NOT to use them.
In the first 3 minutes of the walk we saw a possum and then an old disused kiwi nest, empty for 10 years.
We walked a round but didn't see a Kiwi but heard one close by - very loud. We also introduced to the great Kauri tree. We saw several giant trees of about 700 to 800 years old and one estimated to be abut 1200 years old.
We saw Weta that eat the dead Kauri - about 45 cm long including their feelers with bodies about 4 or 5 cm long. Herb said that the Weta had ears on it's knees - a lot like a teenager then!
We also say an eel, a kauri fish and 3 crayfish in a tiny stream pool.
Unfortunately we saw no kiwi. A young boy with us said that he had been out 20 times and had never seen a kiwi - a bit of a jinx then?
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