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The Black Water geyser basin, Waimangu Volcanic Valley
Waimangu Volcanic Valley is located just 10 km north-east by the Tarawera mountain, a sleeping volcano that has erupted five times in the last 18,000 years.
Waimangu is the only hydrothermal system in the world the commencement of whose surface activity can be pinned down to an exact day – 10 June 1886. During that night, a line of craters, from the northern end of Tarawera all the way to Waimangu Valley, burst into violent eruption. The event completely destroyed all human, plant, animal and bird life in the whole area. Looking around a mere 100 years on, the single most astonishing discovery is the fast plant re-colonisation that has occurred since the eruption: lush forest, ferns, and thick vegetation yet again sprawls over the valley and its steep slopes. The descent to the valley from the Visitors Centre reveals a sculpted panorama, dominated in the background by the mountain Tarawera. In front are two lakes that once lived the exciting lives of volcanic craters: Emerald Pool (The Southern Crater); and the steaming Frying Pan Lake (The Echo Crater), which sit right under the equally steaming lava monolith Cathedral Rocks. As you continue past the Frying Pan Lake (temperature of about 55 degrees Celsius), you reach a large basin embosomed by hills from three sides. In its previous guise, the basin used to be the Waimangu (Black Water) Geyser, the world’s largest known geyser, active between 1900 and 1904. Erupting sometimes to 400 metres and hurling black sand, mud and rocks into the air, it followed a 36hr cycle of activity. Today, it rests in peace, giving birth to plenty of silica terraces and stalactites that have formed in the hot, mineral-rich streams and vents of the basin, and which in turn have promoted growth of amazingly coloured algae, mosses, and lichens. There are Dalí-like clocks, porcelain vases and large blocks painted in beautiful silica yellow, white, kaolin-brown and emerald green, looking as if they had been freshly taken out of the pottery furnace. The jewel of Waimangu is however just beyond the Black Water Geyser basin: the steaming, azure blue Inferno Crater Lake, whose temperature hovers around scorching 80 degrees Celsius and which is enclosed from three sides by black cliffs featuring vibrant ochre stripes. The Inferno Crater is the largest geyser-like entity in the world, although the geyser itself cannot be seen since it plays its games at the bottom of the 30m deep lake. Eventually, after a two-hour trek, you reach the dead end of the valley at the vast Lake Rotomahana, with Tarawera volcano rising beyond it.
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Waimangu Volcanic Valley is located just 10 km north-east by the Tarawera mountain, a sleeping volcano that has erupted five times in the last 18,000 years.
Waimangu is the only hydrothermal system in the world the commencement of whose surface activity can be pinned down to an exact day – 10 June 1886. During that night, a line of craters, from the northern end of Tarawera all the way to Waimangu Valley, burst into violent eruption. The event completely destroyed all human, plant, animal and bird life in the whole area. Looking around a mere 100 years on, the single most astonishing discovery is the fast plant re-colonisation that has occurred since the eruption: lush forest, ferns, and thick vegetation yet again sprawls over the valley and its steep slopes. The descent to the valley from the Visitors Centre reveals a sculpted panorama, dominated in the background by the mountain Tarawera. In front are two lakes that once lived the exciting lives of volcanic craters: Emerald Pool (The Southern Crater); and the steaming Frying Pan Lake (The Echo Crater), which sit right under the equally steaming lava monolith Cathedral Rocks. As you continue past the Frying Pan Lake (temperature of about 55 degrees Celsius), you reach a large basin embosomed by hills from three sides. In its previous guise, the basin used to be the Waimangu (Black Water) Geyser, the world’s largest known geyser, active between 1900 and 1904. Erupting sometimes to 400 metres and hurling black sand, mud and rocks into the air, it followed a 36hr cycle of activity. Today, it rests in peace, giving birth to plenty of silica terraces and stalactites that have formed in the hot, mineral-rich streams and vents of the basin, and which in turn have promoted growth of amazingly coloured algae, mosses, and lichens. There are Dalí-like clocks, porcelain vases and large blocks painted in beautiful silica yellow, white, kaolin-brown and emerald green, looking as if they had been freshly taken out of the pottery furnace. The jewel of Waimangu is however just beyond the Black Water Geyser basin: the steaming, azure blue Inferno Crater Lake, whose temperature hovers around scorching 80 degrees Celsius and which is enclosed from three sides by black cliffs featuring vibrant ochre stripes. The Inferno Crater is the largest geyser-like entity in the world, although the geyser itself cannot be seen since it plays its games at the bottom of the 30m deep lake. Eventually, after a two-hour trek, you reach the dead end of the valley at the vast Lake Rotomahana, with Tarawera volcano rising beyond it.