Was still foggy when I biked past the Lodge, but by the time I got out to Grand, the sun was mostly out. Caught a Turban eruption, which turned into a Turban Interval Delay. There was a boop from Grand around the 30 minute mark, and it took Turban another 4 minutes before it finally erupted. As with most Turban Interval Delays, the next Turban eruption had no overflow from Grand. After the 3rd Turban eruption, Grand quickly filled, and started looking good around the 12 minute mark. The pool didn't really start having waves until moments before the One Burst Eruption started.
Afterwards, decided to put the nice weather to some use, and went down basin for the first time (excepting last evening's Fan & Mortar excursion.) Got to Grotto where the Pressure Pool was full, and Grotto Fountain was having a nice boil. That boil quickly built into a full eruption. Grotto started only three minutes later, and Grotto Fountain never really looked tall while it was erupting.
Sky to the north was black as I headed out for the next Grand. The weather radar showed a storm passing to the north, but I expected we would at least get wet from the edges. Once again, only had to wait one Turban Delay Interval, but this time we got another One Burst Grand eruption. Ten minutes in it had a nice false pause before continuing for another minute. By then, the rain was nearly upon us, and we managed to get back before it really started.
As expected, there was a thick fog over the basin when I went out at dawn. Got over to Grand and then heard Castle start to erupt. Seems like Turban had had a delay, and we ended with what was probably a six Turban Interval Delay. The One Burst Grand Eruption lasted nearly eleven minutes.
Walking away from Grand, there was sudden movement next to the boardwalk as I passed Bulger. It was a rabbit. I was moving alongside and under the boardwalk. The last I saw of it, it had disappeared under the walkway toward the river at Sawmill. I don't remember ever seeing a rabbit in the Upper Basin.
Every time I thought I was reconfigured to go out to Geyser Hill, I came back and made another change. The fog had cleared and the sun was out, but the air temperature was low. While waiting for Beehive, saw an eruption of Depression, and then Dome. This was mostly bursts above the rim. Went around to take a closer look, and noticed no water coming down the runoff.
There were several more Dome eruptions during the wait. Concensus is that the series started overnight, and the subequent eruptions were lost in the fog until that finally cleared.
Thought I was headed out to Grand early, in order to get settled in before the thunderstorms started. I got sprinkled on walking between Castle and Grand. Arrived in time to see the start of a Turban eruption, which turned in the one before a Turban Interval Delay. The pool that time was full, but never looked good, and the interval was just under 28 minutes.
Two Turban eruption intervals later, Grand was full and overflowing heavily when in quick succession there was a Vent overflow, Grand start and then Turban starting. The burst lasted almost 9-1/4 minutes, and we got a nice second burst pushing through the steam.
Just before the Grand eruption there was a report of "snow and ice" on the road over Craig Pass. Right after the eruption, the NPS closed the road. We got to experience pea sized hail on the walk between Sawmill and Castle, and sky to the south was uncommonly black. From the radio, I also heard that strong storms and hail could be expected for the next three hours.
Also on the ride back from Grand, in front of the Inn I encounted a woman riding a bike, holding a phone and looking backwards to take video of the two people riding bikes behind her.
Around sunset got a call about a good looking Fan & Mortar event cycle, with some Bottom vent activity. Since I had not had the opportunity to get down there, and it was an hour before it was time to get to Grand, decided to check it out. One change from last year was that Angle was off when I got there. It didn't join in until after Gold vent started. Otherwise, nothing much happened.
Because of the heavy rains during the afternoon, Belgian Pool was full and murky. What was surprising was that Crystal was also full and overflowing. The caused Slurp to be flooded, and it was actually slurping instead of being a noisy fumarole. Bulger was also having minor eruptions.
Over at Grand, waited one Turban interval for the start of the One Burst Grand Eruption. There was plenty of light to see it, but the wind was such that it was really only visible near West Triplet. The eruption lasted 11m01s, and despite the length, Vent & Turban did not quit.
It was cool and damp and foggy at dawn, but the rain finally seems to have stopped. Went out to Grand with the hope that the short interval were continuing,but instead arrived just in time for the first overflow. A couple of Turban intervals later, we got an interval lasting 36 minutes. So it was six more Turban eruption intervals before Grand finally erupted. The One Burst Grand eruption lasted over ten minutes. It looked like Vent & Turban were going to continue when instead after a minute they picked up and Vent started jetting noisily. Then they shut off. The pause before restart was about five minutes.
With no reports on Beehive, when over to Geyser Hill mostly to enjoy the dry and increasing sunlight. Ended up waiting over by Lion, which was splashing in anticipation of the first eruption in a series, but never did see an eruption. North Goggles was overflowing every nine to ten minutes during that time.
Finally did see Beehive, where the wind was such that the people over by the sign got doused and the railing remained dry.
Thought we were headed out to the next Grand eruption too early, but the benches were crowded. Turns out Castle had erupted earlier than the prediction, so all the people who would've stopped there for the shorter eruption prediction window headed on to Grand.
Turned out we weren't early. Once again Grand had a short interval. For about five minutes the pool fluctuated from just below full to having small waves. Finally one of the fills kept on going and had a One Burst Eruption.
After the eruption is when we finally got a thunderstorm with some initial hail. And once again, the rain stopped by the time the cabin was reached. Lesson is to just put on the raingear and wait it out.
Went out after sunset for another Grand eruption, ended up waiting until just before midnight for a One Burst Grand eruption. (G1C, d=9m57s). It was foggy and damp, but until the fog got too thick, the sky was clear and stars visible. There was also lightning off in the distance to the west. The moon was causing clouds behind Grand to glow, but was just rising as the eruption started. Afterwards the fog was so thick that it looked like all the lights in the developed area were off.
A pleasant surpise in the morning was seeing a report of Beehive's Indicator in eruption only a minute or two after it was sighted. So quickly got moving and had just crossed the bridge when Beehive began erupting. It was still drizzling, and the breeze was pushing the steam over toward Old Faithful (which was erupting, also). Suspect that was a 32hour interval, otherwise this was an extremely short interval of less than eleven hours.
The rains had stopped for several hours by the time it was time to head out to Grand. Spent a total of ten minutes getting a camera in position and ready to go. Just in time, as during the last few minutes the pool looked full and ready. A quick Grand start, preceeded by a boop, with Turban starting a few moments later. It turned out to be a One Burst Eruption. It also makes for about ten eruptions in a row with an interval of around six hours.
More showers, but by the time of the next Grand eruption rolled around, it was dry, and looked like it was going to stay that way. I saw a minor eruption of North Goggles as I walked out past Castle, and of course Sawmill was in eruption.
Got to the Grand Group and everything was quiet. Have seen little to no activity from any of the sput features, and nothing from West Triplet recently. A few minutes later Turban started, and the eruption lasted over 5-1/2 minutes. That was followed by an eruption interval without any overflow from Grand. These are signs that I probably missed a Turban Delay interval.
Except the next Turban interval was well over 25 minutes, with Grand starting (after some boops) at over 27. Turban and Vent both took their time getting started, with the later at over 3-1/2 minutes. The burst lasted just over nine minutes.
It was a steamy pause, but through the fog glimpses of water in the pool could be seen. No fill and drop this time, as we got the second burst. Once again, Vent & Turban quit with a short nine minute pause before restart.
On my way back to the bike, I got to see an eruption of Tilt start as I walked up. Tilt seems taller and more angled, and I noticed that there is no longer any water from Crested Pool going into it. There's also a small hole about 8 meters to the right that I don't remember from last year.
Once again got out to Grand while the showers started. By the time I had the rain gear all put on and in place, I needed it all.
Other than the report of empty crater around 06:00, had nothing much to go on. NPS had posted a prediction for which I was almost an hour early. Fortunately, only a short wait of two Turban eruption intervals. Grand, Turban and Vent overflowing all happened quickly, so I could see what was going on before the steam obscured everything. The burst lasting 8-3/4 minutes was right in the inderterminent range for a second burst, but it did happen. And the steam had cleared enough to see the jetting from the second burst.
Stuck around for the Vent and Turban restart, but mostly to wait for the rain to subside. By the time I got back to the cabin, it was mostly over.
Thought the rain was stopping, so went out to Geyser Hill. I was over by Sponge when North Goggle had a minor eruption. But by then the rains had restarted, so headed back in.
There was a pause in the rain so I headed out to Grand a little early. The pause ended as I arrived, along with an eruption of Turban. I spent the Turban interval getting ready for the rain. I was still playing with some camera settings when I noticed that Grand's pool looked full. Almost immediately there was a boil and the eruption started. The first burst lasted over nine minutes, which is previous years would make a second burst unlikely. But not quite a minute later jets appeared through the fog.
The rains did not let up, so ended up trudging back getting soaked. I didn't expect June weather in August.
The rain did let up eventually, about an hour before sunset. Went out to Geyser Hill on the off chance that Beehive might erupt, but it was far too quiet. Left when it got dark. Did get to see a bull elk come off of the Hill, cross the river and head off toward Castle.
A good day to sleep in and get a late start. Unfortunately, that also meant missing the nicest part of the day. By the time I got out and about, it was overcast and humid.
Did catch a Daisy eruption which lastest 3m11s. Splendid's Side Boiler vent was active up to a meter high up until the last minute before the eruption, and resumed playing about six minutes after the Daisy eruption start. A minute or so later the Main Vent joined in. There's no sign of any increased overflow from Splendid.
Went out a little early for the next Grand, in order to stay ahead of the incoming weather. It was sprinkling a bit heading out on the bike, but stopped by the time I arrived.
It took over twenty minutes before I saw the first Turban eruption, so it appeared that I had just missed a Turban Interval delay. A few Turban intervals later, the rain started up enough to require a raincoat and umbrella, but really didn't start raining until the eighth Turban eruption I saw.
It was two more Turban eruptions before Grand finally erupted. Vent started to overflow well before Turban, and it was over half a minute before Grand joined in. It was a steamy eruption, but I was able to see Vent moments after it started. The bursting quieted down and stopped giving a burst duration of 8m19s. It was hard to see Grand's vent in all the steam, so the second burst started with little warning. Vent and Turban quit less than a minute after Grand ended, which is a bit faster than normal.
Arrived late last night, so by the time we were able to get out and about, it was after sunset.
Attempted to see a Grand eruption, without success. The weather wasn't great, as it was overcast without any light from the gibbous moon. As we waited, it got breezy and felt cool, despite the relatively warm temperature. Saw Turban erupting as we got off the bikes, and the next eruption we saw was after an interval of over 30 minutes.
Nothing much happened after that, but by the sixth Turban eruption after the Turban Delay, there was a storm moving in from the west. The lightning was becoming more frequent and we were starting to hear thunder. A quick look at the weather radar showed a system that was probably going to hit us as it passed to the north. So we left.
As it was that Grand finally erupted two Turban intervals later, and we only got a brief sprinkle of showers. (But there was hail in West Yellowstone.)
Had better success today. Got out at Grand for the next eruption, but first got to see an eruption of Uncertain. It was bubbling strongly when I walked up. A few minutes later Sawmill started. I was over by Oval when Uncertain started three minutes later.
After that, we only had to wait two Turban eruption intervals for the next Grand eruption. The 8-1/2min first burst was followed by a second burst. Vent and Turban quit, but restarted within seven minutes.
After that, it was time for a visit to Geyser Hill. Went around to see the closure of the boardwalk next to Doublet, but first got to see an eruption of Lion start just as I walked up. Seeing the huge hole next to the walkway, and the geyserite rubble farther down on the boardwalk itself, I can understand why the NPS closed it.
It was over an hour later before Beehive finally erupted. Of course the wind was blowing right at the walkway, and a ranger walk showed up after the Indicator started, so the walkway was crowded. Saw the eruption start at the western end, but when the wind shifted, I made a dash through the downpour to get on the other side. From there I did get to see a nice double rainbow low down which extended over half a circle. But then the wind shifted and I had to made a second move.
Later on went out to wait for Grand. No Turban Interval delays, just a long series of Turban eruptions and intervals which showed no promise of a Grand eruption. Then, on the first Turban eruption after the NPS prediction window ended, Grand finally had a One Burst Eruption that lasted less than ten minutes.
It was dark when it was time to head out for the next Grand eruption. The moon was hidden behind solid overcast. But as our wait progressed, the clouds thinned a bit, and there was enough light to see Grand erupt. From the buildup of steam, it was obvious before Turban started that Grand's pool was full. But it took a minute for Grand to finally start. About ten or so seconds before that, there was the sound of what was probably a good sized boop. Unfortunately, the eruption lasted less than nine minutes.
Visted the Rotorua lakeshore and the Government Gardens. Once again, most of the features were murky, acid-sulphate springs and formation. Whangapipiro Pool (aka Rachel Spring) was the one clear, alkaline boiling feature behind a rock wall across the street from the lawn bowling and croquet lawns.
On some maps I've seen a trail along the north side of Puarenga Stream north of Whakawerawera. Investigated it and found that other than one large boiling pool, it doesn't provide any better access or views to the features along the stream inside the village.
The afternoon was spent at the geyser overlook along the Pohaturoa Trail in the Whakawerawera Forest Preserve. From there, over a period of about three hours, saw multiple eruptions of all the features on Geyser Flat.
Pohutu and Mahanga, 14:03
Pohutu seems to have had a short duration eruption, about 15 minutes long, followed by a short interval, about 36 minutes. That eruption was more normal for the last few days, lasting about 45 minutes with an interval of just under 1-1/2 hours. It's interesting that during the last few days, Pohutu was in eruption about half the time, no matter what the duration was.
Saw several series from Mahanga, and again they seemed to be different than previous days, in both length of series and in interval between series. One series was long, about 16 minutes, followed by 34 minutes of quiet. The next series was only a few weak splashes, and then inactivity for 15 minutes. That series duration was almost 20 minutes long, and Mahanga hadn't restarted by the time we left a half hour later.
Finally, we got to see two eruptions of Kereru. The first was a complete surprise, as usual. The second came about 100 minutes later, just as Pohutu was starting. So I should have gotten it on video, but unfortunately I was so zoomed in that the view was bouncing around and I was watching the geysers, not the little screen. So I didn't get much more than some nice still shots.
Kereru and Pohutu, 15:30
In any case, we have seen Kereru on four different days, and pairs of eruptions with intervals ranging from around 70 minutes to about two hours. I'd say that Kereru is quite active, or we got extremely lucky.
On the way back, we visited one last thermal feature. Deep in the forest of non-native California Redwoods is a small mudpot. It's probably one of the most unusual settings for a thermal feature that I've encountered.
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.
A rainy day, heavy at times, but it got a bit sunny in the early afternoon, so we went to spend a couple of hours in Kuirau Park.
First stop was to take a look at Spring #721. This is the feature which erupted over 100 meters high for 15 minutes on a January Friday back in 2001. Now its just an opaque pool with some slight convection.
Kuirau Park Spring #721
Visited the area along Tarewa Street, where several houses had to be abandoned when the springs they were built over reactivated. One of the springs is fairly large and clear and hot, which seems different in an area where most are opaque and acidic. Nearby is another hot feature, which is believe is #712, Parekohoru, that was boiling up about 30cm or so.
Kuirau Lake was steamy thanks to the high humidity from the rains. The boardwalk on the northeast side was fenced off. It looked like the lake might have risen just enough to start flooding and undermining the walkway.
The small spouters next to the Jaycee Thermal Monument seemed pretty much unchanged from the visit four years ago. The same could be said of most of the rest of the features.
After two hours, the rains started up again as we were leaving.
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.
It was clear when we started the drive, but by the time we got to the junction with State Highway 35, there was fog. It got really thick as we approached the Waiotapu thermal area, and I expected it to clear after that, but it was foggy all the way to Orakeikorako.
We arrived just before a busload of tourists arrived, but got across the lake on the ferry well before they arrived in the thermal area. Over the next twenty minutes, the fog cleared, the air warmed and it was a bright and clear the rest of the day.
The first thing of interest I noted was that Bush Geyser was now visible from the trail. In our previous visit, I didn't even know about it despite it only being a couple of meters off the trail. But back then, it was hidden by think underbrush, which is characteristic of most of the thermal area. Not knowing how it behaves, I was under the assumpt that it was dormant since there was no evidence of any wash zone around the vent. That would prove to be a wrong assumption.
Within the first half hour, we saw eruptions of Cascade and Sapphire. We didn't stick around for intervals, but went onward and upward onto the next terrace. There we found Wairiri Geyser active. The previous visit, four years ago, it was a quiet, cool, brown pool. Now it was boiling and splashing up to a meter high, with copious discharge under the walkway.
Nearby were the new features which had appeared underneath the boardwalk. (Last year I discovered a paper in which a researcher went around finding areas of hot ground. One of the areas, years before the breakouts, was that exact area under the old boardwalk.) They look like they haven't erupted in a long time. Some gurgling could be heard from one of the vents, which was the extent of the activity. The vent closest to Wairiri, on the left, had runoff coated with slime running into it. The boardwalk itself had been replaced since last time, and the undergrowth was already starting to obliterate the old trail in places.
Wairiri Geyser
Artists Palette was disappointing. There was almost no water being discharged anywhere. Last visit there was a nice thermal waterfall behind Wairiri and flooding into Dreadnought Geyser. That was gone. All the features on the left, as seen from the overlook shelter were completely drained. Last visit they were full, boiling and featured several pool type geysers.
Artists Palette
Feature #812 had been a thin jet perpetual spouter coming out of a broad pool. It was not erupting, and it's pool area looked damp at best. Later in the day we saw #812 erupting, It was much wider and more ragged, and was acting as a true geyser, but did not fill out the pool area. The water was confined to the central vent.
The sounds of an eruption were usually audible from the area to the right of Psyche's Bath, like four years ago. Still have no idea what is causing them.
The only activity that was new was from what I believe is vent #735. This was a perpetual spouter about a half meter high which would cycle up and down over the course of a minute or so, rising and falling abou 30 to 40 centimeters.
Artists Palette Spring #735
On the side of the boardwalk, opposite the terrace as one approaches the junctions and observation shelter is a large, hot pool that I don't remember from the previous visit. It may also have been a case of something being hidden by the underbrush.
Rainbow Terrace and Fault Scarp (below), Golden Fleece Terrace and Scarp (middle), Artist's Palette (top)
By this time we decided to concentrate on the Emerald Terrace features Sapphire and Cascade. At least there we would be seeing eruptions.There may have been other geysers active on Artists Palette, but we didn't want to spend the time to find out.
We got back and with a few minutes saw eruptions of both Sapphire and Cascade. We were able to infer that either we'd missed an eruption of Sapphire, or it was having shorter intervals than four years ago. As it turned out, Sapphire was having shorter intervals, consistently erupting every 35 to 40 minutes. Between major eruptions, every three minutes or so it would have a short minor eruption episode. At first these consisted of heavy, noisy steam, but as the interval progressed, these would turn into weak splashing lasting maybe 10 seconds. The start of the major eruption almost immediately appeared different and stronger compared to the minors.
The eruptions usually lasted about 1m30s to 1m45s, but some were as short as 1m16s and one eruption had some late splashes pushing the duration past two minutes.
Cascade was having longer intervals than our previous visit, consistently 19 to 20 minutes apart. Otherwise they seemed unchanged from four years ago. The start was sudden. My usual way of catching the start on video was to start recording just before 19 minute mark.
Early in the afternoon I finally got to see activity in Bush. This consisted of a lot of noise, and a single visible splash. Over the next 45 minutes I saw several such episodes, mostly noise but with a splash or two.
Bush Geyser eruption
At one point, I saw steam visible behind the ridge to the west, where Kurapai should be. It lasted for at least ten minutes, and I didn't see any more steam there the rest of the visit.
As with the other thermal areas we visited, visitation seemed low, with only a few buses visible in the parking lot across the lake.
Then there was a noisy episode which lasted longer. It gradually changed to splashing, always within the crater rim and with almost no discharge. Some of the water droplet may have got about a meter above the rim.
We ended up seeing 16 eruptions of Cascade, and 8 eruptions of Sapphire. The last eruptions were the last possible ones before they area was closed.
We also got to see Pohutu in eruption as we drove past on our way to fuel up our car.
Along the shore of the Frying Pan Lake were a number of little noisy spouters. The noisiest, unfortunately, was out sight just below the walkway. Near the outlet at the northeast were a number of areas of convection and bubbling. One would occasionally splash water into the air to a few centimeters high.
Inferno Crater was down at least three meters. The runoff channel still had some brown, stagnant pools in it, but I have no idea how long ago was the previous overflow. The pool was calm and its normal, milky blue color. On the far shore, in a gray debris fan was a small but noisy and wet fumarole, maybe a couple of meters below the high water mark. The debris fans all had many wave cut terraces on them, each maybe a centimeter or two higher than the previous terrace.
The only geyser we saw along the trail was Iodine Spring. It is across the stream and bus road, so not easily visible. But there is a gap between a couple of roadcuts where we could watch the activity. For the five intervals we saw, it was erupting at almost exactly eight minute intervals, with durations just over 1m50s. The spring starts splashing a minute or so before the eruption starts. The eruption height is around three meters, with a jet distinctly angled to the right.
Iodine Spring
The afternoon was taken up by one of our adventures we scheduled for the trip. We took a two hour kayak tour of the Steaming Cliffs/Donne Cliffs along the shore of Rotomahana. This was our first kayak experience, and we got wet. I mostly figured out how to control the kayak and get it to generally go in the direction intended. I didn't take much video, and no notes, because the kayak had my full attention. We were also fortunate in the the lake was calm, with only a slight breeze, and the sky was clear and mostly cloudless.
The reason for the trip was to have more time with the thermal features along the shoreline, and that was extremely successful. We got within a few feet of the "Angel Wings" feature, and I've seen nothing like that anywhere else.
Angel Wings Formation
After that we got to see four eruptions of the Pink Terrace/Otukapuarangi Geyser. Like Iodine Spring, it has an interval of around eight minutes. The eruptions are preceeded by about a minute of overflow, which can be seen coming down a short channel into the lake. The eruption lasted about a minute of so, and jets were easily well over 12 meters high, and noisy.
Pink Terrace/Otukapuarangi Geyser erupting. Photo by Suzanne Strasser.
This was a much better experience for observing geysers than the boat trip we took the previous visit. I'd recommend it as long as you don't mind getting wet, or know what you are doing.
Update: 2023-April 19 — Minor correction to names of features at Steaming Cliffs/Donne Cliffs. Also added another photo of Pink Terrace/Otukapuarangi Geyser.
Before we entered the reserve, we did see Pohutu erupting from the same parking lot as yesterday. Looked like it might have been near the start, as it was quite tall.
Inside Te Puia, before you can wander about watching geysers you must first take the 1-1/2 hour tour. We paid our dues. Wasn't a total waste of time, as did get to pass through the kiwi house, where we saw a couple of them wandering about in dark enclosures.
When we finally got to see geysers, Pohutu was in eruption. It continued to erupt for the next 20 minutes. About ten minutes after that, while we were at the high viewing platform, I saw Mahanga splash. This turned out to be the start of a series of eruptions. Every minute or so for the next ten minutes there was an eruption lasting 20 to 40 seconds long, with heights from three to six meters.
Shortly before the series ended, Te Tohu/Prince of Wales Feathers started erupting again. Pohutu started up about 25 minutes later. Then, about six minutes later, another Mahanga series started. The Pohutu eruption lasted about 41 minutes.
Based on our observations through the rest of the day, Mahanga has a series starting about every 35 to 45 minutes, and it is active for about ten minutes. The first activity of the series was usually a splash or two down in the vent, followed by a small eruption, maybe 2-3 meters high. Then the eruptions reached the full height, with the last of the series not much different than any of the others. The indication that it is the end of the series was having several minutes elapse without activity.
Pohutu and Mahanga Geysers in eruption, 2023 Mar 06 11:59
During this time, we were checking on Kereru. Every time it seemed to be calm, with a little steam coming from the vent, and no indication of any eruptive potential. We figured it wasn't going to do much, and even at one point returned to the kiwi house for another visit.
At 13:00 we were at the high viewing platform. Te Tohu had started about six minutes earlier, and it had been over twenty minutes since the last activity from Mahanga. So we were thinking of watching the start of both Pohutu and a Mahanga series from there. That's when suddenly Kereru erupted. The water column was easily six to eight meters higher than the edge of the sinter platform that blocked our view of the vent area.
Over the next half hour, Kereru had strong minors every two minutes or so. Some of these were as high as the platform in height. Pohutu started at 13:18, giving us an interval of almost exactly 1-1/2 hours. But after the half hour, Kereru was quiet until about 14:00. Then splashing started in the vent, becoming more vigorous over the next few minutes. It became fairly obvious that something was about to happen, so we were able to record the full start of the next major eruption at 14:05. This eruption lasted 30 seconds, and I estimate the height was from eight to ten meters.
Kereru Geyser, 2023 Mar 06 14:05
In the aftermath of this eruption, Pohutu quit erupting, giving a duration of about 40 minutes again. But twenty minutes after that, Te Tohu started. It was twenty-six minutes later, at 14:54, that Pohutu started. I watched this start from over by Mahanga (which was quiet), and I would estimate that the height was well over twenty meters. It looked higher than an eruption of Daisy Geyser. There was also the sound of jetting water under pressure coming from what was probably the strongest eruption of the day. Again, the eruption lasted about 40 minutes.
During all this time, Kereru was having minor eruptions every two minutes or so. Most of these looked like they might turn into major eruptions, so we ended up recording many of them.
The next eruption of Te Tohu was followed 24 minutes later by Pohutu, giving an interval of 1h25m. This was our last start of the day, as the area was closing. We stuck around until 16:30, and as we left, Kereru was still having minor play every couple of minutes.
It appears that both Pohutu and Mahanga were extremely regular during our visit. We didn't spend much time observing Mahanga once Kereru erupted, but whenever I expected activity based on a 40 minute series interval, I would see some activity. Kereru, on the other hand, seems to need a period of quiet before it will start a series with a major eruptions. This pattern fits what we saw four years ago. In both cases, Kereru was quiet for several hours before surprising us, then following up with more eruptions after pauses in the minor activity.
It's also interesting how Mahanga has retained so much of the bright yellow sulphur deposits that make up its formations. I've not seen any geyser that has that sort of coloration and looks like it does.
Like Waiotapu yesterday, Te Puia seemed much more empty than it was four years ago. The only time there were any sort of crowds was when the half-hourly tour came through. Between those times we could have the whole area to ourselves. Suzanne was able to revisit the kiwi house and spend about fifteen minutes there alone in the dark. The forced guided tour is annoying, but afterwards the conditions were much better than the previous visit.
(Videos of all this activity will have to wait until I return home and edit the videos into something manageable.)
Today it was off to Waiotapu. Most of the features were not much different from our visit four years ago. The biggest change was that there was now some runoff down the Primrose Terrace, especially the bottommost, narrow portion. The water in Devil's Bath/Roto Karikitea is the same industrial green as before.
Walkway past Waiotapu Geyser
The other difference is that the walkway past the Waitapu Geyser is closed off. That was a huge disappointment. But fortunately, the geyser is still visible, but from a high, distant vantage point. It is easy to pick out if you know where to look.
Waiotapu Geyser vent, seen from overlook. (Center of view, just above railing.)
From what we could see, the area around the vent was dry. This is probably a good indication that we were there in the middle of the cycle. Late enough that the water from the previous eruption has evaporated, and early enough that the cycles of overflow had not yet started. We decided to not stick around.
We decided against going to see the induced eruption of Lady Knox Geyser. Instead, once the tours stopped around 09:45, we pretty much had the area to ourselves for over an hour.
Unlike the previous visit, there didn't seem to be a huge mass of people appearing after that eruption. The parking lot seemed mostly quiet as we had a picnic lunch, and I didn't see any bus tours during the afternoon. That may be normal, but it seemed that the closure during the middle of the week would be justified for a lack of visitation.
Next up was Waikite, a small area we missed last time. It's the home of Te Manaroa, a boiling cauldron discharging 40-50 liters per second. It's right next to a road, but down in a gully so that the steam collects there, making observations difficult. It continuously boils, occasionally surging to about two meters, although the amount of water being discharged doesn't seem to change.
Te Manaroa Spring at Waikite
Nearby is another, small boiling spring. Above it is the discharge from a third spring not visible from the walkway.
Note that there is a NZ$4 entry fee, but this feature is interesting enough to be worth it.
After that, we stopped in at Te Kopia. The mudpots are liquid, with little to no activity. They are also a pale blue color, as if they are in the process of clearing.
The walkway to the boardwalk appears to not have had any vegetation cut back since our last visit four years ago. The stairway was overgrown with wild berry vines with little stickers.
Our drive back from grocery shopping took us past the end of Fenton St. There is a parking lot there where the geysers of Te Puia are sort of visible through a fence when they erupt. We arrived at 17:15 with Te Tohu/Prince of Wales Feathers in eruption. We waited for about fifteen minutes as it erupted, then Pohutu started at 17:31 A few minutes later, at 17:40, we saw the tops of jets of water from Kereru. I would hope that that would be an indication that we will be able to see Kereru up close in the coming days.
It was cool and damp when we arrived at Tokaanu. Before going into the Reserve proper, we investigated the features across the road. There we could hear, hidden in the bush, the sounds of splashing. Along the street, there were areas of hot ground, including a spot between the curbstones where a frying pan was forming.
Went into the reserve, and almost immediately things didn't look good. There were two vehicles parked exactly at the spot where there's a gap in the fence to get to Taumatapuhipuhi. On the back of the flatbed truck was a dog that loudly objected my presence anywhere while I was within sight. It barked continuously for several minutes. At one point I heard an eruption hidden by the vehicles, which I assume was Taumatapuhipuhi. I finally decided to walk the loop taking videos and then decide what to do.
As I neared the finish of the loop, I heard the vehicles leave. The way to Taumatapuhipuhi was now open. As it turned out, I heard them leave as I was passing a feature that would become a center of attention during our visit, and so I didn't pay as much attention to that feature as I should have.
Eruption of Taumatapuhipuhi, 11:54
Was able to log the times for eight consecutive eruptions of Taumatapuhipuhi, starting with the one I heard. The intervals started long. We had to wait almost 36 minutes to see the eruption after the one I heard. From then on, the intervals decreased so that the last interval we saw was 21 minutes. Because of this, we did miss a couple of the eruptions. The first time that happened, we walked up to see the sinter platform wet and steaming. The second time I did get an "in eruption" time.
The durations of the eruptions varied from 26 to 10 seconds, with the other three durations being about 20 seconds. The heights were about two meters, and wide. I got splashed once standing about three meters from the rim.
The reason we missed eruptions was because we discovered another erupting feature. Named Hoani, it is a wide, deep boiling pool. The central pit was about five meters across, and I could not see any bottom to it. It is located in a broad, tannish colored sinter sheet depression.
Eruption of Hoani
When I walked by taking a video, and the video shows that it was quite hot, and full to the rim. I didn't remember any such feature from our visit four years ago. After the first eruption of Taumatapuhipuhi finished, we decided to head back to look at a few features along the trail, and immediately noticed the 30-40cm high boiling on one side of the crater. This boiling built up to well over a meter, then subsided. This activity continued for at least 1h15m, and we probably saw it near the start. At one point, I saw some surges that could have been two meters high. The activity was much like Artemisia.
The walkway was not built with an erupting, boiling spring in mind. There were times when I was walking along that the fog from the eruption was almost scaldingly hot. This steam was condensing on some of the trees, producing a rain below them. We tried to time our visits to Taumatapuhipuhi and spend rest of the time at Hoani, which is why we missed a couple of Taumatapuhipuhi eruptions.
It was after one of those eruptions that we noticed that the pool was quiet again. Previous pauses had lasted only a few seconds, but this one stretched into a minute or more. Then we noticed that the pool was dropping. By the time we left the area, 45 minutes later, Hoani was down 30-40cm, with the outer rim already drying in spots.
Beyond Taumatapuhipuhi is an area that's been heavily "culturally modified." An area of hot ground and frying pans that's been converted into an area for the preparation of hangi, the Maori method of cooking in hot ground.
Hangi area, Tokaanu.
After almost four hours at Tokaanu, we headed towards Rotorua. There were a couple of minor thermal areas north of Taupo that we had not visited the last time that we were going to try to see.
The first was "Craters of the Moon", where the Karapiti Blowhole was located. The area has been heavily affected by the nearby geothermal powerplants, and consists mostly of subsidence craters with some weak fumaroles scattered about. The only feature of any interest is the replacement for Karapiti, which is up on a hillside and consists of a wet, moderately noisy fumarole and some other noisy fumaroles. This of "A Fumarole" at Fountain Paint Pots.
This area can be bypassed unless you want to see what a destroyed thermal area looks like, or want to complete a checklist.
The second stop was going to be the "Wairakei Thermal Valley". This is an area that used to contain close to a hundred geysers, some playing to over 30 meters. It is now completely overgrown because all the activity has gone into making electric power. Was not looking forward to visiting, but figured should at least see what it looked like. But when we got to the entrance road, we were blocked by a closed sign. In the Taupo area the cyclone of a few weeks earlier had destroyed a significant percentage of the trees in the area. A lot of those trees had their tops snapped off, while others were complete uprooted.
(Earlier in the week, near Tongario National Park, we had to lengthen our hike to a waterfall by an extra 500 meters because the road was blocked in three places by downed trees. The road was low priority for clearance, as it had no other reason for being other than access to that hike.)
Since we had a little time, and we were passing right by, instead we stopped at the Waiotapu Mud Pots. These are in a free area, and well worth a stop. In the pool were a number of active areas spouting mud to as much as three meters high. These areas were periodic, with the longer the quiet period, the more vigorous the activity when it finally did erupt.
