Happy Friday! We’re getting further into the spring season here in the northern hemisphere. But this week’s featured image comes from a place where it’s now autumn: New Zealand. In the city of Rotorua on that country’s North Island, I saw erupting geysers.
New Zealand, which sits astride the Ring of Fire, is a geological hotspot; for example, no fewer than 48 active volcanoes can be found within 20 kilometres of Auckland’s city centre. Geysers tend to predominate in areas of significant volcanic activity, and Rotorua (situated within a region called the Taupo Volcanic Zone) is no exception. Within Rotorua, the particular location of the geyser seen here is a field called “Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao,” meaning “The gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao.” Here’s the sign to prove it:
In the days before email, filling out envelopes addressed to that particular “gathering place” would not have been fun. Anyway, Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao contains at least 65 different geyser vents, although some shoot up their water vapour more frequently than others. It’s one of three places in the world where I’ve witnessed geysers in action; the others are Iceland, and the northern California town of Calistoga. I’ve not yet visited what is probably the most famous geyser on the planet: Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park in the American state of Wyoming. I hope to make it there at some point.
The photos in this post were taken during my visit to New Zealand in January 2010.
Have you ever seen a geyser in person?
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