Today we returned to the Whakarewarewa thermal area, but on the Maori village side. We got a late start because we misunderstood the types of tours offered. You can't see Korotiotio and Parekohoru on the Geothermal Walks self-guided tour, but need to take the Village Legacy Tour. But that also includes access to the Pohutu viewpoint, where we spent much of our time.
The view of the Geyser Flat, while not close, is still pretty good. You can see enough of Kereru to get an idea of what it is doing, and Mahanga is visible at the same time. We arrived there while Pohutu was active. It was probably early in the eruption of Pohutu, because it continued to erupt for half an hour. We saw the start of a Mahanga series which lasted about 12 minutes.
After 45 minutes or so, Te Tohu started, and almost immediately, we also got an eruption of Kereru. As in the other times we've see it erupt, it seemed to have been quiet before the eruption. Afterwards, it was having strong minors for the next hour or so.
Two hours later, an eruption of Pohutu had come and gone. There were three series of Mahanga eruptions, lasting from 9 to 14 minutes. Pohutu had been erupting for about 12 minutes, and it was three minutes short of two hours when we got to see a second Kereru eruption.
At that point, we took our Geothermal Walk. The area covered is large, with numerous hot pools with occasional mudpots and areas of what appear to be perpetual spouters. The underbrush is thick is many places, hiding features so much that you can hear them, but not see them.
Since we still had an hour before closing, we went back to the overlook, but were blocked out by some tours. By the time we got to the platform, it looked like Kereru was finishing an eruption. Over the next hour, it had many strong minors. Some of these would put up jets of water well above the higher Geyser Flat platform. If that was an eruption, then the interval was about 1-1/2 hour, which fits our previous experiences.
During that time watching the minors, we saw Mahanga end a series, then have another that was still going 19 minutes later, when we finally had to leave the area. At that time Pohutu was still about ten minutes away from another eruption.