Monday, May 24, 2010

Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Wonderland I



Precipitated metals, multi-colour rocks, sulfurous vapours, boiling mud and water, craters and poisonous lakes, Wai-O-Tapu is otherworldly. It's a lesson in active geology too. You really just have to see it to believe it. And, hear it and smell it, really. Click on any photo to see it enlarged.

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NZ 023Wai-O-Tapu sulfurous walls
Wai-O-Tapu crater
Wai-O-Tapu boiling mud The mud at the bottom of this crater was boiling.

These had names like 'Devil's Hole' (which terrified one four-year-old girl, who talked about devils the whole walk) and 'Devil's Ink-Pots'.

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This was like a lake, except it had turquoise, lime, khaki or taupe pools, hissing and bubbling, and lemon spots, steaming.
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