Observations for 2023 March 11


Today was much nicer than yesterday, so it was a day to get out and about. There's more than just geothermal areas in and around Rotorua, and we spent some time on them. But we also visited Tikitere (Hell's Gate) for a couple of hours.

It's sub-divided into several distinct thermal areas, two of which have trails in them. Walked all the trails for a couple of hours. It's another acid sulphate area with many large pools filled with gray water with areas of convection, and lots of sulferous ground. There were a couple of pools with water being thrown a couple of meters high.

At the entrance to the area, next to the bathing pools is a steam vent, which is probably an uncapped steam well. A nice, artificial fumarole.

We didn't visit it on our prior trip, and I doubt we will be visiting it again. Like seeing an eruption of Lady Knox, at least now we know what we are missing.