Central North Island, New Zealand

study abroad		wellington		lighthouses		central north island		abel tasman		kaikoura

The next weekend trip was into the more geologically interesting area of New Zealand	Kapiti Island, off the western coast a bit north of Wellington	Postcard of the "Lost World" cave, in the Waitomo Caves area. You abseil 328ft (100m) down into the cave, then climb and swim several miles upstream to the start of the cave. I didn't want to soak my camera so I got a postcard. The Waitomo area is mostly limestone, so caves are plentiful, as are sinkholes.

Lake Rotorua, an old volcanic explosion crater	Rotorua is a geothermal hotspot, there are thermal hotspots all over the area. This one is called "Hell's Gate".	A boiling pool

Boiling mud	Mud volcano with boiling pool in background. Notice all the holes in the ground behind the volcano? That is the reason for the sign, just off the built-up path it looks like safe ground, but its only hardened mud over top boiling water. We saw several holes just off the path shaped like feet.	The yellow is sulphur bubbling out of the ground and into the lake. The entire Rotorua area smells like sulphur, and in some places it was almost unbearable. This picture, and several more, are from "Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland".

The sulphur went into this emerald lake, there were several emerald lakes in the area		The Champagne Pool and surrounding muck

Mostly overflow from the Champagne Pool, shallow, sulphury, and pretty damn hot		Shore of the Champagne Pool, the center of the pool goes down about a 1000ft where the boiling water comes from

Postcard of Champagne Pool	Pit with steaming blue-green water	Another pit full of puke-green water

Another thermal spot, this one was called "Craters of the Moon", but we couldn't figure out why	Huka Falls, water flows down through the canyon and picks up incredible speed, so that the water goes down the falls at about 45 degrees

Lake Taupo, the crater remnant of a massive explosion, with active volcanoes in the background	Mt. Ngauruhoe has the classic cone shape	Mt. Ngauruhoe, and the lumpy area to the right is Mt. Tongariro, which had a little bit of steam coming from the northern side

Mt. Ruapehu, tallest volcano in New Zealand	Mt. Ngauruhoe seen from halfway up Mt. Ruapehu, the white is ash, not snow	Kiwi crossing sign with Ngauruhoe in background

Mt. Ngauruhoe again	Postcard of the emerald lakes on Mt. Tongariro	Mt. Ruapehu has erupted several times in the 90's, postcard

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