Visitors at the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland near the Rotorua lakeside town of Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty North Island in New Zealand's Taupo Volca

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Visitors at the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland near the Rotorua lakeside town of Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty North Island in New Zealand's Taupo Volcanic Zone. The steaming geothermal zone is dotted with hot springs and the Geyser Lady Knox, Champagne Pool, Artist Palette, Primrose Terrace and many bubbling hot mud pools. The Champagne Pool spring with its minerals giving a vivid orange colour around its edges is the largest in the district, 65m in diameter and 62m deep. Its surface temperature is 74C. Before the arrival of Europeans, the area was the home of the Ngati Whaoa tribe who named the 18 square km active Thermal Wonderland, ‘Wai-O-Tapu’, meaning: ‘sacred waters’.

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Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Wai-O-Tapu, North Island, New Zealand
Photo credit: © richard sowersby / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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