On our way north from Tongariro for our week in Rotorua, we stopped in at Tokaanu again, just to confirm that nothing much had changed. It was a cold and windy morning (at Tongariro the weather forecast included snow showers). Houni and Matawei were identical. Taumatapuhipuhi seemed to be a bit murkier (it probably rained overnight), and a stick we'd noticed was no longer in the vent, but the activity seemed unchanged.
The previous visit I had noticed sounds coming from the area to the south/left as I had entered the thermal area, but had not been able to see the source of the noise. Maybe it was because it was early and not afternoon, but this time I saw the source. It was a small sputterer, with a height of perhaps 5-15 cm, situated in a alcove at the southern edge of Huri Kariori (#11), a large pool next to the stream and entrance walkway.
After a while, it seemed to die down, and was harder to spot even knowing it was there. When we left about 15 minutes later, it was active, but still seemed subdued compared to what we saw on arrival. The few references don't mention any activity there, despite the pool having a name.
Sputterer at Tokaanu Huri Kariori (#11). 2026 March 02. Video by H.Koenig.
Later in the afternoon, we stopped at the Waiotapu Mud Pots. It turned out there was major construction on State Highway 5 and we had to wait for at least 1/2 hour to make the final kilometer to the junction road. Fortunately there are alternative routes when we visit Orakeikorako in a few days.
The mudpots looked much like they have in previous visits. They are a large, gray soupy pool with lots of thicker islands scattered mostly along the shoreline. Some of these islands were explosively active, with mud being splattered a couple of meters high. Also, near the entrance to the walkway were a couple of older, inactive mud cones about 1-1/2 meters high.
First up was the CO2 cold water Mokena Geyser at Te Aroha. This was the first eruptive feature of our 2019 visit, and it was unimpressive that visit. Mostly it just spit and sputtered and made a lot of noise. But this time we got to see some real eruptions.
When we arrived there was a slight wisp of vapor coming from the vent opening. Otherwise it looked like there was little hope of observing any sort of activity. After about twenty minutes, the sound of water moving could be heard below the southernmost hatch leading to the spa intake. Within a few minutes the sound got louder and then the eruption started with no warning.
This was a thin jet of fizzy water that quickly reached an estimated six to seven meters above the vent. The jetting stayed strong for about a minute, then started to subside. By about two minutes, the jetting paused, then restarted. This activity continued for another 4-1/2 minutes, with the pauses getting longer and the heights of the jets decreasing. By the end, the height was maybe ten centimeters lasting a couple of seconds. Then all was quiet again.
There had been reports of intervals around forty minutes, and based on how long it took for us to see the eruption, we decided to stick around and catch the next eruption, assuming the interval would be in the forty minute range.
At around forty minutes, I could hear water moving again below that hatch, and within five minutes, we got a secon eruption with an interval around 45 minutes. This time the eruption didn't seem as strong or as high. I estimated the height to be four meters at most, and the first pause occurred around 1-1/2 minutes into the eruption. But the pauses and weak jetting continued for almost as long as the first eruption, finally ending at six minutes.
Mokena Geyser @ Te Aroha. 2026 Feb 28. Video by H.Koenig
I reviewed my video of Mokena from 2019 and noticed a few differences. First, the vent has changed. The current one has a wider opening and is flat, while the earlier was more nozzled. Also, a section of the retaining wall at the gate was removed. So it appears that the "geyser" got a upgrade over the past seven years.
A few hours later we finally got to a real thermal area— the Tokaanu Thermal Reserve. When we last visited in 2023, we got to see multiple eruptions of Taumatapuhipuhi and an eruption of Hoani. This time we did not see any geyser activity.
Taumatapuhipuhi (#13) was in a near constant start of small ebullition over the vent, maybe 8cm high. Every so often there would be a rumble and belch from the southern end of the vent. We saw no evidence of any vent there in the previous visits. The area around the geyser show no signs of activity, but instead there was significant debris which would have been washed if it had been active. There was also some plant fragments floating on the northern end, near outlet to the trench leading to the bathtubs. The small slit I noticed last visit was also periodically spitting out some water.
Taumatapuhipuhi Geyser, Tokaanu. 2026 Feb 28.
Houni (#31B) was hot, but the water level was down about a meter. It was acting as a drain for Matawei (#31D), the feature across the trail. The broad flat expanse around Hoani's deep vent has some grass growing in it, so there has not been a great rise like we saw back in 2023.
Matawai appeared to be boiling, and pouring off water which drained through a pipe leading into Hoani. Behind Hoani the feature Kirihoro (#31A) was drained, and it too had plant life growing among its formations.
Hoani and Matawei, Tokaanu. 2026 February 28. Video by H.Koenig
It seemed like there were a number of features along the walkway that were low, because they were surrounded by dead plant life or other indications of earlier high water.
Across the street there was a new fence blocking the view of some of the features at the western end of that area, where the Tuwhare Geyser (#23A) was located. The curb on the street wasn't steaming, but it was also a relatively warm afternoon, not a damp early morning as in our earlier visits.
We may stop in briefly in a few days to check on things on our way north to Rotorua, but it was disappointing to not see what has been the only free natural geyser activity in New Zealand.
It's our third trip to New Zealand, and after spending over a month on the South Island, we finally got around to visiting Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel peninsula of the North Island. It was as uninspiring as I had expected. Didn't miss much by not stopping here on earlier trips. The first trip (2019) we ran out of time, and wanted to see real thermal activity. Second trip (2023) we didn't visit Coromandel at all because of all the typhoon related road and trail closures.
Instead of going to the paid parking tourist trap area, we used the free car-park and walked along the beach toward the mass of people to the south.
We arrived about 10:00, an hour after low tide, and it was amusing to see people industriously digging away in the sand trying to construct their soak hole only for the rising seawaters to wash it all away with a couple of incoming waves.
Hot Water Beach, New Zealand
Some of the diggings did hit hot water, as we could see steam rising from some of the pits. Didn't stick around as the area seemed to combine the worst features of hot bathing springs and beaches (boring places for boring people).
Besides, in a few days will be able to report on real geyser activity (or the lack thereof).
Passing along an online report on changes at the Hveradalir geothermal area in Iceland that were posted at Iceland Monitor site.
Increased visible steam has been observed along the national highway through Hveradalir.
Geophysicist Ari Trausti Guðmundsson says that steam vents often form at relatively shallow depths in areas of geothermal activity and near hot springs.
“The best example is in Hverahlíð, south of the road leading up to Hellisheiði, where drilling was carried out for the Hellisheiði Power Plant. Suddenly, steam began rising from the hillside somewhat farther east,” he says.
Back in August 2024 there was a landslide in the same area that exposed some buried features.
The landslide that took down material from the southeast side of Skíðaskálinn in Hveradalir in mid-July has probably broken the top layer of the soil above a steaming hot spring.
It is most likely that the combination of steam activity and high precipitation caused the landslide to occur at this time.
The main thermal area has a walkway and is easily accessible from the highway. We stopped in there when we visited in 2023. I remember a report from back then about steam appearing along the highway, visible in a traffic webcam view, but can't find that report now. So this activity may not be that new.
The wait, despite the shorter expected interval, was longer this time. It started with the first visible pooling of the lava on the webcam at 2000. We continued to watch until we saw overflow at around 2145. Decided it was time to head over and start observing in person.
Arrived shortly before 2300, and did not witness another overflow until 0215. There was another almost two hours later. it was fairly strong, and lasted around 11 minutes.
The intervals were about one hour apart until 0700, with longer durations, when they started to decrease. By 1530, they had dropped into the 6 to 8 minutes range. This was starting to look the preliminary activity before the previous eruption.
All of these overflows seemed to have the effect of slowing raising the lip and bottom of the lava waterfall, with the bottom rising faster. There seemed to be less distance between the two by the time of the eruption start.
This state of affairs continued until 2100, when I decided to head back to the parking area and do some watching via webcam, which actually had a better view of the vent when it came to details.
The lot was full, but there was some turnover. A lot of the vehicles were running their engines, i guess because it was humid and foggy, and if you didn't open the windows, it fogged up inside.
The overflows stopped by the time I got to the car, and after several hours of absolutely nothing happening, Suzanne also returned and we went back to our accommodations to eat, recharge dead batteries and get a little sleep.
it was now well into 30 September, which was supposed to be our last full day of the trip. We had the webcam on the wall screen the whole time, and nothing continued to happen until noon approached. By then we decided to return to the parking lot to secure a space, if any were available.
We wasted some time since the overflows were still intermittent. The parking lot had a number of empty spaces when we arrived, but these were slowly filling up. The people started using the parallel spaces, and we decided it was time to return to the overlook.
We managed to replace our previous view spot, as there weren't many there. I didn't notice anyone who looked like they were waiting like we were, as we had the only chairs out there.
Kilauea intermittent overflow, 2025 September 30. Photo by Suzanne Strasser.
The second round of overflow ended around 1900. A couple of hours later I did as the night before, headed back to the car to reconfigure. Dozed off and just before midnight decided to check the camera again. There was heavy overflow from the vent, so called Suzanne to find out when it started. She said she was about to call me. I quickly got myself together, and a half hour later was back out. The sky was glowing red for the last half of the mile walk.
Kilauea preliminary overflow, 2025 September 30. Photo by Suzanne Strasser.
For the next half hour the flow did not let up, and then it seemed like the doming over the vent was turning to jetting. The USGS start of the eruption was put at 0053. For the next hour the height of the jetting got taller, surpassing the height we had seen in the previous eruption. Then at just before 0145, the glow in the South vent began to get brighter. First lava poured out, then it too began jetting. Within a couple of minutes its height was greater than that of the North Vent. And it continued to get higher.
At their best, I was estimating 240 to 300 m/800 to 1000 ft for the North Vent, and 350 to 450m/1200 to 1500 ft for the South. I've not seen a report for the North, but the USGS put the south at 1300ft, so my estimates were in range.
Kilauea Eruption Episode #34. 2025 October 01. Photo by Suzanne Strasser.
With the eruptions so tall, there was little liquid lava running down the slopes. Instead there was a stead rain of solidified lava. At times the jets were obscured by a curtain of this material. We could also see it being swept upwards by the convection current, which made height estimation a bit difficult.
With two lava columns, we could feel a bit of warmth coming from that direction, surprising considering the distance.
It wasn't until about 0400 that it started to look like the height was decreasing. Around 0530 I thought that the power of the columns was decreasing, but they kept coming back.
By then it was getting light. The night started out clear, but as it got lighter, the clouds turned to mist. It never turned into rain, but the area got wet.
Kilauea Eruption, Episode #34. 2025 October 01. Photo by Suzanne Strasser.
Finally, around 0650 it be came obvious that the end was near. The South vent height dropped rapidly, ending at 0700. The North Vent continued for another three minutes before it also quit.
For the first few hours the crowd was well behaved. Around 0300 the Asian selfie mobs started to appear. At one point the took over a huge area beyond the rope boundary to the left of us, and proceeded for the next hour to prance around making idiotic poses and gang gestures. It got kind of tiring to see these same gestures over and over by people who seemed to be under the impression they were being witty and original. At a couple of points we had to yell at some of the selfie gaijin, as they were stop waving their overly bright lights in our direction, or getting too close to the cliff edge slope. I came to the conclusion that the best way to describe these people is that "they were not here to see the volcano erupt, but to be seen at the volcano eruption". It would have been easier and cheaper, in both time and money, so do their antics in front of a large screen projector. (I hope and expect to see so-called AI created selfies in the near future. Then maybe the selfie plague will end when no one will believe you were there.)
Just before the eruption ended, at dawn, a flock of nene (Hawaiian geese) flew behind us. As in Yellowstone, it appears they commute into an area in the morning, hang around for the day, then disappear at sunset. We saw them (with multiple tourists getting too close) on our way back to the parking lot.
Nene at Kilauea. 2025 October 01. Photo by Suzanne Strasser.
The order of events we saw were quite similar in both eruptions we saw, but more drawn out this time, despite the shorter interval. At times it seemed the volcano was deliberately going slow to make sure we could not make our original travel plans for home. As it was, the eruption started after our deadline for leaving. Fortunately, we had alternate flights booked, and were easily able to extend the car rental. It was midday after the eruption ended when we were able to find a place to stay.
On the evening of 02 October, I felt the 3.7 earthquake at 2029 located just south of Pahala. It was like the rumbling for a second of a piece of heavy equipment (electric generator, for example) starting up. Outside, the frog noises, which are loud and constant much of the night, decreased for a moment or two. Suzanne didn't feel a thing.
