Waimangu Volcanic Valley - Part 1

During our holiday earlier this year in April we visited Waimangu Volcanic Valley near Rotorua. Because I took so many photos and there is so much information about this spot I'll be putting up posts in probably 3 parts. 

So basically we started at the top of the mountain, the whole walk is about 5kms all up to get to the bottom. This is the home of the pink and white terraces which were covered by Tarawera Eruption in 1886. From here we could see a rough overview of the valley, you can see steam and smoke rising from below.

This lake is known as the "emerald pool" in the southern crater - this whole area is all hydrothermal. At the time of the original eruption craters burst on the volcano, a 16 km long rift running southwest from the mountain opened up with 22 craters exploding from the land. 15 of the craters are now underwater Lake Rotomahana, the 7 remaining ones are in this valley. 

This is a painting of the Tarawera Eruption - from 1886 by Charles Blomfield so you can see how massive it would've been back then.

A long trail from start to finish wound down through the valley, this is part of the nature walk we ambled down. Because our borders are still closed to overseas tourism there weren't many people, we were the only ones here at this time.

We did pick up a map explaining who painted the various artworks throughout the trail but once we got home there was no trace of it.

This one is of Echo Crater and Frying Pan Lake - the latter is the largest hotspring in the world. An accommodations house which use to exist near this spot fell victim to the valley's largest hydrothermal eruption. In 1917 it erupted bursting through the roof of the house and burns from the steam killed the wife and her child of the guide who lived there. 

 

This one is Cathedral Rocks - the heat of this lake area is around 55 degrees celsius and climb to around 67 degrees celsius when the heat is really bubbling below. The rocks are made of rhyolite lava estimated at around 60,000 years old. 

There were signs up everywhere warning parents to supervise their children, for obvious reasons so I took this fun photo of B pretending to look displeased next to it 😂

Part 2 coming up next week. Linking up with Our World Tuesday, Travel Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, Through my lens, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.