IN THE WEIRD COUNTRY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 272, 21 December 1914, Page 3

IN THE WEIRD COUNTRY.

BLOW HOLES AND CAULDRONS. CHANGES ABOUT EOTORUA. Press Association. ROTORUA, December 19. Owing to the dry season, the lakes in the thermal district are very low. Kotomahana has dropped some 6ft, and Lake Taupo and the Waikato River are lower than they have been for 18 years. The bar at the mouth of the Waikato is so shallow that the large lake steamers cannot be taken to the wharf in the river. The Crow's Nest Geyser, near the Spa, which played regularly during the winter up to a great height on occasions, is now quiet, being always affected by the drop in the river, on the banks of which it stands.

The hot springs at Wairakei are unusually active, one reason given being that little cold water percolates through the pumice to cool them down. Last St. Patrick's Day the famous Champagne Pool at Wairakei turned itself into a geyser. No one saw its first shot, but it must have been of considerable size, as the falling water ploughed large furrows in the hillside, and a stone larger than a mau's head was thrown out of the cauldron on to the terrace. Since then it has been shooting to various heights at irregular intervals with dense clouds of steam. The Great Wairakei Geyser is also spouting higher than before/and many of the hot pools in the valley have become intermittent geysers to some extent. At Frying Pan Flat, Waimaugu, a large new mudhole has broken out, and a new geyser has appeared on top of one of the small hills in front of the Government guest house. The "Frying Pan" itself is steadily extending, and is 60ft in length. The famous blowhole, which was one of the great attractions of what is known as the Rotomahana-Waimangu round trip, at the steaming cliff called Gibraltar, was blockod by a fall of stone, and after shifting its exit several times it now emits its jet of steam at a point about 100 yards further along the bank. The vent is much larger than before, and the steam does not roar so much as it used to.

A report has been going about lately that the Terraces at Rotomahana were re-forming, but the only foundation for the rumour is the presence of a few trickles of siliceous deposits upon the face of'one of the steaming cliffs. As Mr Warburton, the well-known guide, says, it would only need some pools of hot water on top of the cliff to start the formation of new terraces in earnest. It is a consummation which may be devoutly wished for, but it is not yet in sight. At Whakarewarewa, Pohutu Geyser has been uncommonly active. It has played 707 times in the last 14 months, and sometimes fires off as many as four times a day. Wairoa and Waikite, however, show no signs Of activity, and have been quiescent, now for nearly four years.