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Wai-O-Tapu Volcanic Park, New Zealand
Thursday, January 11 2007 @ 11:10 AM | Contributed by: Oliver | Views: 1,317
 | In New Zealand's North Island near Rotorua is a park with a very large number of diverse and spectacular points of geothermal activity. It is called "Wai-O-Tapu" which means "Sacred Land" in Maori. The Area is kept as a park and one has to pay an entrance fee to be admitted. The colorful spots all have individual colorful names and present a very diverese overview of the different colors that reside below our feet, unseen most of the time. The smell is not the nicest, but the view covers up for that. |
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| The complete park is quite big and will take several hours to walk through. There are several benches scattered around and it is worth sitting down and taking the time to look at some things closer. One first thing you might want to see is the Lady Nox Geyser. It is made to erupt artifically by throwing soap into it every morning at 10:15. This causes two chambers of cold and hot water to mix and the eruption can be quite high and takes up to an hour. Don't expect any explosive rumbles though. Its more like a large hose with hot water in the ground. Further there are quite large hot mud pools, which look nicer the dryer it is. |
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| As mentioned, all places have quite colorful names. While there are some simple caved in holes in the ground with some steam coming out of them (Deveil's home, Pic 1) and some with a murky, boiling substance (Devil's Inkpots, Pic 2), there are also very colorful shallow and deep ponds (Artist's Palette, Pic3) |
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| There are also several cave like structures with boiling water below (Rainbow Cave Pic 1 and Sulfur Cave Pic 2) as well as coloful sediments in cliffs (Alum Cliffs, Pic 3) |
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| Water is flowing everywhere, sometimes bubbling hot from the ground in small pools (Pic 1), sometimes flowing in small rivers with green-colored algae growing in them (Pic 2), and sometimes in steady small and large lakes (Oyster Pool , Pic 3) of unknown depth and temperature. |
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| Other, less distinctive, but geographically equally interesting formations are all over the place, such as the Sulfur Mounds (Pic 1) and the Bridal Veil falls (Pic 2 & 3) |
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| One of the most spectacular places is definetely the Champagne pool. This pool is steaming hot, has a red rim and tiny pubbles permanently rise from it, giving it its name. |
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| Everything is quite well explained, as well in the guidebook they distribute as on the boards placed everywhere giving an insight how some of the attractions interat and their chemical reasons for beeing colored. Everything can be seen, from Deep and black (Inferno Crater, Pic 2) to flat and bright (Devil's BAth, Pic 3) |
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| This is an overview of Artist's palette in the foreground, champaign pool in the right top, andthe terrace boardwalk and the Jean Batten Geyser towards the far left. |
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| The Ngakoro Lake & Waterfall with a view to the south and Mt. Ruapehu on the far horizon. |
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