A glimpse of the isles of the Pacific . a frowned down upon us. At the side of thismountain, a huge piece blew^ out and fell into the lakeduring the eruption; this leaves a yawning hole, which givesthe mountain a ferocious appearance. We walked about aquarter of a mile between Tarawera and Rotomahana,where we took another launch and went across this are the sites of the famous pink and white terraces,which were destroyed by the great eruption; this is a pity,because they were very beautiful and quite the sights ofNew Zealand. The guide shows you where they were, andthe hot water and
A glimpse of the isles of the Pacific . a frowned down upon us. At the side of thismountain, a huge piece blew^ out and fell into the lakeduring the eruption; this leaves a yawning hole, which givesthe mountain a ferocious appearance. We walked about aquarter of a mile between Tarawera and Rotomahana,where we took another launch and went across this are the sites of the famous pink and white terraces,which were destroyed by the great eruption; this is a pity,because they were very beautiful and quite the sights ofNew Zealand. The guide shows you where they were, andthe hot water and the minerals which form them; there arenumerous boiling springs all about this lake, and clouds ofsteam can be seen in almost every direction. We landedon hot ground and proceeded to walk up an old river bed,seeing, every few feet, little clouds of steam rising from thebank; anywhere along here one could poke a stick into theground, which was quite soft, and steam would immediatelycome out. We walked about four miles and climbed two 41. big hills, saw more steam holes, and one called the FryingPan, where hot water was boiling and bubbling up overquite a large space of sand, and looked very like its name. At last, we reached the crater of the great geyser,Wiamungu, which, at the present time is not active. Upto a year and a half ago, it spouted to a height of from 200to 300 feet. The guide said it had ceased playing becausethe two lakes adjacent to it had lowered several feet, and,of course, we were not in a position to question two or three months before it ceased playing, fourpeople were killed because they stood too near and theboiling spray covered them. We reached the rest house overlooking Wiamungu,very tired and hungry, and were glad that our long walkwas at an end. After lunch we drove to Wiatopu, sixmiles distant, where we spent the night. Here are somemore geyser formations, one called the Champagne Pool,which bubbles furiously all the time, another sulphur
Size: 1232px × 2029px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidglimpseofisl, bookyear1907
