3/8/15 Waimangu

We got on the coach after breakfast (by the way our driver, Logan, is very informative about the area) and headed to Waimangu volcanic valley.  Our first view was of the mountain, Tarawere, which is a restlessly sleeping volcano, having erupted five times in the last 18,000 years.  In recent history, there was a huge eruption in 1886, which completely destroyed all plant, animal and bird life for miles around.  There was another big eruption in 1900 which resulted in the world's largest geyser, and in 1917 there was an eruption of Frying Pan Flat.  There was loss of life in each of the eruptions, but the worst was the one in 1886 which completely destroyed several Maori villages.  We took a lovely long walk with our local guide, Steve, who also pointed out native plants and birds.  We had to stay on the path as just off the path was just a thin crust in spots.  Steve put a probe in the ground next to the path and it measured 212 degrees.  He said that last year a new guide stupidly stepped off the path into the bush to take a leak and crashed through the crust.  He got burned quite badly on his leg.  My favorite part of the walk was climbing up stairs to get a great view of Inferno Crater Lake.  The water is a pale blue and is covered in steam.  The water temperature can reach 180 degrees.  At the end of the walk we took a boat ride around Lake Rotomahana.  Many hot springs discharge into the lake and we saw large groups of native ducks, scoots, and lots of black swans.  We also saw a hawk overhead who was  looking for fish.  There used to be white and pink terraces formed by silica from the hot waters flowing into the lake and rising for up to 85 feet, but they were destroyed in the 1886 eruption.  We took a bus back to the visitor center and had lunch in the cafe.  Lana and I elected to be dropped off in time to poke around, but as it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed.  We walked back to the hotel and will go out again for dinner soon.  Tomorrow we leave here and will head to the south island of NZ.  Sorry about not putting any pix on lately, but the space on the ipad is full and I have not had enough time to send then to the cloud to make more room.  I will have to come up with a faster way to get the pictures on the blog.