Eight Days in the Taupo Volcanic Zone – Day 3: Thermal Areas

Today’s plan was to visit two thermal areas and end the day camping on the shore of Lake Taupo, en route to the Tongariro National Park, which was the main focus of our trip. After starting our day with a swim in the Waikite thermal pool and packing the camper van, we headed directly for Wai-O-Tapu, which was only a couple of kilometres away. Our aim was to be on site for the ‘performance’ of the Lady Knox geyser, which erupts daily at 10.15 a.m.

First we had to purchase tickets from the Visitors’ Centre about a kilometre from the geyser then rush back to be in place – with a good view – when the geyser was ‘persuaded’ to erupt. The geyser was ‘discovered’ in 1901 by a gang of prisoners working on a forestry project. When washing their clothes in the stream, the soap caused the geyser to erupt, casting the clothing into the surrounding vegetation. Since then, the geyser has been ‘soaped’ with a natural surfactant every day and rocks have been placed around the base of the spring to enhance the eruption. Over the years silica from the eruptions has built up to produce a white cone.

The silica-covered cone that marks the Lady Knox geyser. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 15.7mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/403 second at f/7.1.)

The Lady Knox geyser erupting. (Photographed with the EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; 28mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/250 second at f/8.)

Having photographed the geyser, we returned to the Wai-O-Tapu Visitors’ Centre to explore the entire site. Despite being highly commercialised and a-buzz with other tourists, Wai-O-Tapu is worth the NZ$30 admission fee for the variety of thermal structures it contains. The most impressive are undoubtedly the Artist’s Palette and Champagne Pool, which lie in the heart of the 18 square km reserve.
A 3.5 km path takes visitors through the main attractions from the Visitors’ Centre to Lake Ngakoro (“the grandfather”) at the southern end. It takes roughly 75 minutes to complete this walk. Visitors with less time can opt for shorter walks, a two-kilometre walk taking 40 minutes and a 1.5-kilometre walk that can be completed in half an hour. A guide map is provided with entry tickets.

Both cameras got a good workout at Wai-O-Tapu and it was difficult to choose which one to use when. Consequently, I set both cameras to record RAW+JPEG files. In general, I used the EOS 5D Mark II whenever there was a subject I thought I might want a large print of and the G10 for shots for subjects that were less likely to produce memorable prints, but which I wanted to record nevertheless. In retrospect, I think I should have taken more shots with the 5D2 but, having taken all shots with the G10 at ISO 100 I remain confident that any images I want to print at A3+ size will be up to standard.

The Champagne Pool is a highlight of the reserve. Located at the furthest extent of the shortest walk (and passed on the other walks) it is 65 metres in diameter and 62 metres deep and its surface temperature is 74 degrees Celsius. Occupying a 700-year-old explosion crater it steams continuously and makes a wonderful subject for photography. The champagne-coloured water is rich in minerals, including antimony, mercury, thallium, gold and silver. These have formed brilliant orange deposits around the pool’s rim.

A view of the Artist’s Palette with part of the Champagne Pool visible on the right hand side, just in front of the hillside. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 6.1mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/403 second at f/7.1.)

A close-up view of the Champagne Pool showing the colourful mineral deposits around its edge. (Photographed with the EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; 47mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/125 second at f/11.)

Looking across the Champagne Pool shows the rising steam and mineral deposits. (Photographed with the EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; 24mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/181 second at f/11.)

Leaving the Champagne Pool you follow The Sacred Track, which passes through a stand of pine trees. The end of this track provides a panoramic view over the Kaingaroa Plains, with the green waters of Lake Ngakoro in the middle distance and Frying Pan Flat at your feet.

The view from the end of The Sacred Track, showing the Alum Cliffs and water-filled eruption crater in the foreground, Frying Pan Flat in middle distance and the bright green water of Lake Ngakoro beyond. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 6.1mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/159 second at f/7.1.)

As you descend the hill, you come across the Bridal Veil Falls, which are supposed to cascade off the sinter terraces on the east side of the Artist’s Palette. Unfortunately, due to lack of rain in the area, verl little water was flowing down the falls. Instead, the area was pockmarked with algal deposits, some of which made interesting photographic subjects.

One of the algal deposits on the sinter terraces that mark the edge of the Bridal Veil Falls. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 10.8mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/318 second at f/7.1.)

The stream flowing out into Frying Pan Flat. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 6.1mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/202 second at f/7.1.)

Frying Pan Flat is noteworthy for its sulphur deposits, both in the water and along the cliff faces where steam emerges from the ground in fine fumaroles. The yellow colour of the sulphur varies from almost luminous chrome to pale lemon, depending on whether it is in the water or out.

A small sulphur-emitting fumarole at the edge of Frying Pan Flat. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 12.1mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/318 second at f/7.1.)

The Sulphur Cave, which is located in a cliff bordering the track around Frying Pan Flat. The pale lemon-yellow sulphur crystals have been deposited as hot sulphurous gases cool in the sheltered environment of the overhanging cliff. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 6.1mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/60 second at f/6.3.)
We ended our visit to Wai-O-Tapu at the Mud Pool, which isn’t part of the reserve and can be viewed free of charge. It’s located close to the Lady Knox geyser on the site of New Zealand’s largest mud volcano, which was eroded by heavy rain in 1925. The mud pool can be visited at any time of the day and provides a great opportunity for experiencing (and photographing) the sights and sounds of bubbling mud.

It’s well worth a visit and you can’t help laughing at the display. My partner shot some great video clips with his Panasonic FT1 camera and we both had fun trying to record the unpredictable splats and burps as different parts of the pool burst into life.

A view of approximately a quarter of the Mud Pool, showing several points of eruption amongst the steam. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 21.5mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/501 second at f/7.1.)

A shot of one of the closer eruptions. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 21.5mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/501 second at f/7.1.)

After lunching beside the Waikato River, we headed west to Orakei Korako, which lies hidden in a valley 68 km south-west of Rotorua and roughly 25 minutes’ drive north of Taupo. This isolated site can only be reached by boat but it is generally regarded as the most picturesque of New Zealand’s thermal areas.

Twenty million litres of hot water flow out over silica terraces very day, providing environments for colourful deposits of minerals and algae. There are also approximately 200 alkaline hot springs and around 70 geysers, which erupt unpredictably. The area is also notable because some scenes for the BBC television series, ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ were filmed here.

The ferry trip across the Waikato River is included in the NZ$31 admission fee. Taking about five minutes, it is run to meet passengers’ requirements. It takes about an hour to walk around the circuit and see everything the site has to offer. When you alight from the ferry you are immediately confronted by silica terraces, covered by streams of brilliant coloured mineral flows.

Looking across the Waikato River to the Visitors’ Centre, where you catch the ferry. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 6.1mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/350 second at f/8.)

The upper regions of the silica terraces showing the colourful mineral flows. (Photographed with the PowerShot G10; 6.1mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/636 second at f/7.1.)

One of the pools on the Rainbow Terrace. (Photographed with the EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; 32mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/125 second at f/11.)

The Ruatapu Cave at the furthest end of the walkway is an impressive natural cave with a jade-green pool at its base. This pool is thought to have been used as a mirror by Maori women who prepared for rituals here. It gives the site its name; Orakei Korako means ‘place of adorning’. Because of the huge brightness range it is impossible to photograph the cave looking out from the edge of the pool. You have to resort to high dynamic range techniques.

This means taking three shots; one with the metered exposure, another with -2EV of exposure compensation and the third with +2EV. These images are combined in Photoshop, using the Automate>Merge-to-HDR function to produce a single image. A fair amount of tweaking was required to produce the result shown below. (For readers who don’t use Photoshop, we were able to produce a very similar result by combining the section of underexposed shot containing the sky with the normal exposure and selectively erasing the edges of the overlaid image.)

The result of the HDR merge of images taken looking outwards from the Ruatapu Cave. The shot data is for the normal exposure. (Photographed with the EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; 24mm focal length, ISO 800, 1/90 second at f/11.)

After leaving the Ruatapu Cave, we progressed back to the ferry landing via the Cascade Terrace, where one of the smaller geysers was intermittently active. We saw no other active geysers during our trip, probably because of the lack of rain to refill the underground reservoirs.

The Cascade Terrace with the intermittently active small geyser near the bank just right of the centre of the picture. (Photographed with the EOS 5D Mark II, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; 105mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/500 second at f/8.)

The rest of the day was spent driving south to the caravan park at Motutere Bay, where we would spend the night. The location was idyllic; being right on the shore of the lake. Unfortunately, Highway Number 1 also ran alongside the lake roughly 50 metres away from our camp site, which meant we spent the noisiest night of all the nights we had in New Zealand.

A panoramic view of Lake Taupo, photographed from our camp site. Composed from three shots taken with the PowerShot G10, it was produced with the PhotoMerge function in Photoshop CS4.