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.
Our trip to Hawaii had been planned way back in August. By then, the activity at Kilauea had settled down.,but we still figured we'd spend a couple of nighttimes there in the hope that it might be doing something. So it was a pleasant surprise to have Mauna Loa start erupting on 27 November, less than three days before our arrival.
01 December
The morning of 01 December we headed out around 02:00 from Kona, for the Saddle Road, not knowing what to expect. As we approached the junction of the western end of the Saddle Road, we could see red glow off to the east.
We did know that the shoulders of the road had been closed to stopping along much of the top where the visibility was best. We arrived at the Mauna Kea Recreation Rest Area where there were a number of people watching the eruption. There was enough of a view that we didn't leave until after sunrise. During the night there was a steady stream of people stopping for a quick look, then moving on. I am guessing that a lot of them were tourist heading to one of the airports for an early morning flight on the other side of the island from where they were staying. Many people dressed in shorts and light jackets, while at that altitude (6500ft) it was decidedly cool.
View from Mauna Kea Rest Area, 2022 Dec 01
After sunrise, we proceeded onward to find better places for observations. Did notice a bunch of cars pulled off at the junction of the Old Saddle Road and the highway, just west of the Puuhuluhulu trailhead. That junction looked like a possible viewing site, as did the trailhead. Didn't stick around, though, but drove on up to the Mauna Kea visitor center at 9200ft.
From that location there was a nice view across the saddle of the smoke from the main eruptive vent, Fissure 3. There was also some evidence of red glow along the lava stream coming down the mountain. Was probably another good view in the dark.
When we picked up our rental, we were offered the opportunity to upgrade to a Jeep at no cost. Normally renting a Jeep would have added several hundred dollars, and we probably wouldn't have put it to enough use to justify the expense. But here the only drawback would be lower gas mileage, so we took the opportunity. Now we were about to put that opportunity to use. In order to drive to the top of Mauna Kea, a four-wheel drive vehicle is required. It's not because the road is gravel much of the way, but because it's extremely steep and possibly icy. The paved section coming down from the Visitor Center has a sign with "17% grade" on it, and the road above is probably steeper. Low gears are required. That also helps filter out much the tourist traffic.
As it was, the road was closed because it had snowed the previous day, and the authorities wanted to check the road for icy conditions before opening. But we didn't have to wait long before we were on our way up.
It's a long, slow drive, and the view is impressive. You don't really see the telescopes until you are near the summit area, because you are just too close and it's that steep.
We spent several hours up there. There was still snow piled up where it had been plowed. It was clear up there, because we were well about the cloud layer, especially the clouds coming from the east that covered Hilo. There was little wind. Haleakela on Maui was a huge mass below us to the west. Most of the time, we had the area to ourselves. There were a few vehicles parked at the observatories, and a few people there going about there business. Several times people drove up, snapped a selfie or two, then headed back down. In one case I don't think they even bothered to get out of the truck.
View from Mauna Kea Summit, 2022 Dec 01
By the time we left, I was starting to notice the elevation (just under 14,000 feet), despite having been in Denver only 24 hours earlier. Definitely did not want to do the short hike over to the actual summit. The drive down was no worse than the drive up. At the bottom, they will do brake checks and make people wait until they cool down a bit. Ours were just under the limit, which was surprising as I wasn't using them much.
Back on the Saddle Road, we noticed a lot of activity along the road as we headed back to the west. The Old Saddle Road jct was being coned off with lots of flashing lights from official vehicles.
We learned about what was going on when we got back. Turns out the authorities were in the process of turning the old Saddle Road into an observation area. From the junction across from the rest area to that exit junction was about 5.5 miles long. It was now one-way, to the east looking at the lava flow, with a low speed limit where the right lane was for parking/observing and the left for travel.
02 December
Headed out again in the middle of the night. When we got to the Rest Area, we took the side road to see what was it was like. There wasn't much view for the first couple of miles. The best views were in the last mile or so. The lava flow all the way down from the fissure was visible, but the base of the fissure was hidden by topography. We didn't stop, but headed on back up to the visitor center. All along the lower part of the Mauna Kea Access Road people had pulled over to the side to watch the activity. Higher up, there were groups of vehicles at various turnouts, too.
From the visitor center, we hiked to the top of Puu Kalepeamoa, a cinder code just across the road that rises up an additional 200 ft. The view from there was ideal. The activity from the fissure was visible, as well as the full length of the lava flow. It was a bit breezy, not surprising considering how exposed the area is.
03 December
Another middle of the night observation. This time we only went up the Mauna Kea access road to the Mana Rd junction, the last place with a view on the lower part of the road. Going down the slope slightly got us away from the Canadian expounding on his experiences with heating with wood stoves, and from from all the lights of the selfie takers. Sitting on that slope we had a wonderful view of the full extent of the lava river, along with the lights of the vehicles moving along the roads. It looked like we could see the lava flowing down the channel at various bright spots.
04 December
Changed accommodations over to Volcano, so we went to the Kilauea overlook in the early morning hours. That was something we had done on the previous trip, and was planned for before the Mauna Load eruption started. Arrived around 03:00 to a diminishing crowd. Unfortunately, the last two people to leave took a half hour trying for the perfect selfies with both eruptions in the background. (Is that the point of the automated cameras and their annoying countdown beeping?) They had their stuff spread out all over the place before we arrived, and as they gathered it all up, discovered a lens cap got lost. Moving their stuff was "totally disrespectful, as we are locals." Spent the next ten minutes looking all over bare, rocky ground for it. For about twenty minutes after they finally left, we had the area to ourselves before people starting showing up for sunrise. A much quieter, less well lit, and less self-absorbed crowd.
Mauna Loa was the more interesting of the two eruptions. We could see variations on the fountaining which caused various parts of the fissure to brighten on occasion, Kilauea had quieted down. There was some convection in the lava lake, but unlike last March, there wasn't any activity along the edges, or much changing in the cracks and fissures. There was there any evidence of movement. Because of the overcast, there wasn't much to see in the actual sunrise.
06 December
We tried the Mana Rd. Junction again, but was clouded out. So we went on to the Visitor center, and hiked to the top of Puu Kalepeamoa again, and stayed until sunrise. It was very windy up there, but fortunately it was bearable just downslope on the leeward side.
07 December
We went out to Kilauea for the sunset. The activity down in the crater was even less than the previous visit, but the fountaining from Mauna Loa was easily visible from there. I was surprised how many people left before it became truly dark and the glow from the eruptions were fully visible.
08 December
This was the day we had to vacate our Volcano accommodations and head back to Kona. So we didn't get within view until early morning. The drive up was cloudy with misting rain, and we didn't see any activity until we arrived at the Mauna Kea visitor center. From there we could see increased fountaining, with the clouds occasionally obscuring the view. We only saw a hint of red, but the plume was nicely silhouetted against the sky. From 15 miles away, it looked huge, well over 400 feet high. (Which would make it the tallest eruptive activity I've seen.) At times, the plume looked like a geyser similar to Daisy or Riverside, as not only was it going continuously, but it was also tilted. The tilting varied as we watched, but most of the time it was to the west/right.
View from Mauna Kea Visitor Center, 2022 Dec 08
09 December
Based on the activity the day before, we expected the eruption might be nearing an end. When we left from Kona, there was little activity showing on the webcams. By the time we arrived at the Mauna Kea visitor center at dawn, it was obvious that the activity had decreased dramatically.
This turned out to be our last visit. By the time we returned to our accommodations, the webcam was showing no lava fountaining, just a vigorous smoke plume from a vent hidden behind the cinder cone. The next morning, there was so little activity visible we decided to not make the hour long drive.
10-12 December
Not only were things quieting, but before we got on the plane to head home, the USGS declared both eruptions to be over. So our timing for a trip that we planned back in August was almost perfect. We missed the initial first couple of days activity, but that was about it.
We also put the four-wheel drive of our Jeep upgrade to one other use, that of visiting the Green Sand Beach near the South Point. Only a couple of miles, but the way there alternates between rough track over lava to deep ruts in the sand. (At some points, we drove though a rutted, sandy section where to original ground surface was higher than the vehicle.) Did get a bit confused by the maze of trails at one point, and probably didn't take the easiest route at times. The green sand is really that, fine grains of dark green olivine with hints of pyrite. Was almost tempted to take a sample.
We never were able to get up close to the volcanic activity. The front of the lava flow never got closer than a couple of miles from the Old Saddle Road. The Mana Jct. viewpoint was about ten miles from the erupting fissure, and the Visitor Center a couple of miles even farther.
But this wasn't surprising. There was only one rough road up most of the way to Mauna Loa, and it was blocked off by the initial lava flows. Much of that area is an active US Army base, with notices along the highway to stay out due to unexploded ordnance. One morning the view road got closed for several hours after some people who wandered off the road into the lava fields discovered and reported an unexploded smoke grenade.
The county civil defense authority seemed to manage things well. I was afraid that access would be heavily restricted, so the opening of the viewing road was welcomed, even if we never really used it. Only on the last day was parking along the Mauna Kea Access road restricted, with orange cones all along the road up to Mana Rd. Jct. The rationale was "extreme fire hazard", which seemed odd considering most mornings we experience dew in that area.
Added Pending events to Submissions view. These are events which have not been sent to the server because the network is not available. (For example, in the Lower Geyser Basin.) These events can be edited and deleted while pending.
Added a status bar at the top of views. It shows the clock, the time of the last update, and the number of pending events, if any. Swipe right to reveal feature timeline and eruption entry.
More options to filter out secondaries reports, or not display posting information. Display of intervals and option to display times always in Mountain Time or your local time. Date picker wraparound optional.
Also added better sync support. Database should now be completely synced after a submission.
More bug fixes and cosmetic cleanup.
This will probably be the last version to support iOS 12.4. The next major update will probably jump forward to iOS 14 or later.
If you'd like to try this app, contact me and I can provide a promo code for a free download.
The repetitions have gotten tiresome. A long interval overnight put the One Burst Grand eruption at dawn again. I had to stop for a bison, in front of the store, again, made me stop for it to cross the biketrail. Fan & Mortar are back to dormant. The One Burst Grand delayed for six Turban eruptions, and Beehive's Indicator started as we got our bikes untied at Castle.
At sunset we got to wait at Grand two hours for no good reason. At least, once again, everyone out there let the moon illuminate the One Burst Eruption.
