From this vantage point, we could see all of the valley, lots of hills leading to Lake Rotomahana, and Tarawera Mountian which last erupted in 1886 creating much of the geological wonders that we would soon see. Despite the destruction of all life in the area, over the last hundred years, a dense jungle of beautiful foliage has grown to fill the valley we see today. Closer to us, along the path we would soon take, we could also see hints of the coming hot springs and geysers as steam billowed above the canopy.
There were many sites to see along this path, the first of which was Frying Pan Lake, a body of water bordered by steaming rocks of sulphur and silica, and the entire lake was covered in swirling wisps of steam and a strong hint of sulphur in the air. Water deep below the surface of the earth is super heated by magma close to the earth's surface, and this water dissolves away minerals in the ground (such as sulphur) and forces it's way through the earth's surface eventually depositing those minerals, and leaving the entire area with a smell of rotten eggs.
The water from Frying Pan Lake and other springs lead down a river that seemed devoid of life, and yet there were flies likely getting minerals from the waters edge and microbes growing in thick mattes in certain areas. The river side was dotted with hissing holes in the ground, sending small spurts of water up from the ground and billowing clouds of lovely steam and hydrogen sulphide. The smell was quite bad, but the sites were worth it!
The path diverted away from the stream and up to a large crater. Along the way we could see signs of what appeared to be a dried up stream, ceased long ago due to a change on geothermal activity. This was not entirely correct. The beautiful body of water in Inferno Crater was a light blue, somewhat reminiscent of the the glacial lakes of the rocky mountains. Unlike those lakes though, you would not dare get in this water, as the colouration was not due to dissolved minerals created by the friction of a glacier scraping bedrock, but from the dissolved silica that the water accumulates. It can also be 80 degrees Celsius and a pH of 2.1. The water goes through a rhythmic cycling of low water, slowly raising 6 metres till it eventually overflows down the seemingly dried up stream before receding down to a low level again. We were fortunate to see it at the point where it is a brilliant sky blue rather than it's usual grey colouration.
Then we got our exercise as we hiked over Mt Haszard, to finally be reunited with the stream. This lead to yet another amazing geological formation, the Marble Terrace and Buttresses, formed by silica depositing from water running over the land and then over the deposits. This forms a huge layer of rock, covered by water that seems to continually deposit and build these structures.
Then, after water and coffee, we made a pit stop at the Warbrick Terrace where this unusual stream had formed a pool by depositions at the edge eventually building up to dam the stream.
After some animal cookies and some more water, we moved on, although this would be essentially the last big active geothermal sites. We wandered through the grass till we reached the lakeside, where we were pleasantly surprised to find numerous waterfowl, including the beautiful black swans.
We enjoyed watching the birds for a while, got a good look at the sleeping giant across the lake that had brought about the wondrous sights we had just seen, and hoped on the bus back to the top of the valley. We grabbed some peanut butter sandwiches before heading on to our next adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment