IN GEYSER LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 205, 27 August 1904, Page 9

IN GEYSER LAND.

BY DX. F. E. CLARK.

(Copyright.)

'"Wonderful"' is the adjective th_t prings to one's lips a. he journeys hrough New Zealand. If nature has anywhere in the wide vorld lavished her., curiosities and her j narvels with unstinted hand, it is in he thermal belt of New Zealand. For nearly two hundred miles one ca"« j ravel and see at every step of the > ourney a fresh wonder thai almost ; akes his breath away. A boiling lake,, vhere the water bubbles and seethes, md thumps against the bottom of your J o\v boat as though you were taking a j rip over a huge witches' cauldron: a mighty geyser that throws a gigantic •okiuin of mud and water a thousand | ir fifteen hundred feet in the air: a ■oluuin crowned by a cloud of steam a mile high, which can be seen forty miles away: mud volcanoes, which seethe and splutter and wreathe their surfaces into all kinds of fantastic] shapes, occasionally spattering The incautious tourist with a daub of hot mud: places -where the earth quakes and vibrates with an unceasing throb, exactly as though one were standing jver the propeller of a fast steamer; jreen lakes, blue lakes, crimson lakes, ,vhite lakes, black lakes: pools of every imaginary line; ''champagne ponds." ivhei- the water is always bubbling and sparkling and fizzing in good earnest, ivhen a handful of sand is thrown into it; purling brooks of boiling water, babbling innocently over many-coloured stones; alum waterfalls, arsenic pools— indeed, mention a colour, salt, or au ingredient of any kind that you would like, in your water, and here it is supplied at short uotice. Moreover, in some very restricted areas a hundred marvels are crowded torrethcr. as though Xature wanted to show what varieties of uncanny combinations she could present in a single acre. Into a spot that might be covered with a blanket she will crowd a dozen different geysers and hot springs. Perhaps the Wairakei region affords the best illustration of crowded and varied marvels. It is difficult to choose, however, the one most interesting spot, for there, are a dozen that vie for the pre-eminence, aud each one exhausts the vocabulary of diabolical names to describe the infernal wonders that every where seem to be breaking from the lower regions. Here we have "The (.ate of Hell.*' and the. "Devil's Wash Basin (evidently cleanliness there is,not next to godliness), and Glory and "Hades Front Door."' and a score of other equal- j ly suggestive names. No wonder that those, who gave these , names in the iirst place were reminded of the lake of fire aud brimstone at everc turn. Let mc try to describe a few of these wonders, such as the world nowhere else affords iv stu-h marvellous profusion. The whole region is one vast field of thermal activity, and tlie lava and sodiac with which the country is covered is not favourable to agriculture or grazing. In one spot are a number of low, onestorey cottages, set in pretty gardens. At. the foot of tlie gardens flows a hot river direct from a boiling lake a mile away. By the time it reaches the hotel its waters are cooled to a comfortable IQodcg. Fabr.. and it. widens out. into a swimming pool of perhaps half an acre in extent. And lucre i- no such delightful bath in the world. The weeping willows all about dip their drooping greenery into the warm poo. Beautiful tree ferns stand sen* tinel along its banks; great red pines shut out tlie too insistent sun by day, but allows the stars to peep through their hr.mches at night, for in this balmy cli- ' mate a. bath is possible at. any hour of I the day or night. i And such delicious soft water as it is', j One's flesh feels like satin after a bath, j Two yards from the hot pool is a cold bath, where the water foams over a miniature cataract, and you can jump from one to the other in a single leap. The refreshing bath prepares you for a walk of a mile to the coloured lakes, which it would he a pity to miss, though their marvel? pale before, the geyser valley. Still they are unique and most interesting First we come to a pool of robbin's egg blue: not a reflection of the sky above, but dyed by some colouring matter of its own. A white lakelet is near by, with water like milk which has seen too much of the pump. Xext is a greenish pool, with crystals of arsenic, apparently lining the bank, and not far away, a murky little pond of deep maroon colour. AU of these are hot. and many of them seething and sizzling in angry commotion. >"ear by is a great pool of fiercely boiling mud. Throw a branch of a tree into it and the poor thing I whirls around for a moment, and is then ! sucked down into the seething, bottomless ahvss. and we see it no more. ! But we must not exhaust our capacily ! for wonder among these many-coloured j lakelets, for th" geyser valley is far more marvellous, and lies near by. What kind of a geyser will you order? Here you can have anything in that line that the world affords; big or little, red. white or blue, a geyser that spouts half a hundred feet high or one that only bubbles over the lip of its vent-hole. First we come to the petrifying geyser that shoots out of the steep bank of a hill. and covers everything it. touches with an incrustation like red coral. This geyser gives a ".-hot" every eleven minutes, and you mu.t be careful when peering into the black cavernous hole, from which the hotwater demon emerges, lest his eleven niin- ! utes of quiesence are over, and be dash bis . scalding spray in your face. Wo had to i run for our lives, as an unexpected shot came near oveiwhelming us. The "Twins"' lie next in a large basin whose sides have been encrusted with the sail- and minerals which the Twius are constantly throwing out. The periods of these geysers are very short, and one immediately follows the other, hence their brotherly name. In full view of the Twins is the "Prince of Wales" Fealhers." which possesses the singular property of being turned on or off at the will of the guide. He dams up a small hot stream, and thus turns it into the geyser's hole. After twenty-five minutes by the watch it suddenly throws up three feathery plumes to a height of almost twentylive feet, with a spread of twenty-five or thirty feet on either side, and then you must wait twenty-five minutes for another shot. Tiie Dragon's Mouth is one of the most feuisonie of all these geysers. The "mouth"* is just large enough for a man to squeeze ihrough the jaws, which by nature have been painted a bright red. and look like the gaping lips of seme huge infernal monster. If you are going through you must hurry, for every live minutes the dragon belches out a great fountain of steam and hot water about ten feet in the air. which falls over some red and black rocks in a very pretty series of miniature cascades. But what a horrid dragon he is!, Throwing out tons of scalding watery

clouds of steam, lashing himself into a fury, and then subsiding as quickly and quietly as he became excited. In two minutes he looks "as though butter wouldn't melt in his mouth,"' and in three minutes more he will again be in an ungovernable fury, and you must "mind your eye" if you would not _c scalded to death. The "electric geyser." as it is called. is another most unique and interesing freak among geysers. Great bubbles or balls of steam are constantly starting from one side of the pool about two feet below the surface and shooting across with lightning rapidity to the other ,ide. They look as big as your two lists and when you put a. stick in their wav they strike against it with a force that almost knocks it out of your hand. The "Champagne pool is another most interesting hot water exhibit. It is a little circular lake, perhaps thirty yards across, and it is seething and sizzling aud effervescing as though it had just been uncorked, while every now and then, at irregular intervals, it throws up a great mass of boiling water that falls back harmlessly into its pool a"_in. "It isn't often dangerous," said the guide, "Truthful Bob" (as he proudly informed us he was called), "but if you hear it thump, thump, thump, three 'times like this." suiting the action to the word, by striking three resounding blows on the ground, "then run as though the evil one was after you. However, we didn't hear the old monster "thump three times," and we wandered on to the great Wairakei ceyser. the most stupendous wonder in all this marvellous valley. Every twelve minutes it plays for about four minutes, subsides for another eight, and then gives another exhibit. As regularly as "clock work it goes off, just on the tick, and deserves, if it does not receive, the name of "Old Faithful." In the great Wairakei vast quantities of water shoot up into the air some 40ft .1- so, capped by clouds or steam. In .a minute tbe great cavern, just now empty and dry. is filled to overflowing, and a large ' brook of boiling water pours out to join the little Wairakei run that goes rippling over its stones just as though it were not deadly hot. In four minutes the geyser subsides, the brook ceases to flow, the cavern from which the water spouted becomes dark and empty until iv just eight miuutes more it renews its marvellous demonstration. About once in 34 hours all the geysers become unusually excited and spout, higher and boil more furiously than ever, and then the habitues knowthat great Waimangu. 50 miles away, has given a great "shot," perhaps a thousand or twelve hundred feet in the air. It takes the volcanic force 36 hours io travel underground from Waimangu iio Wairakei. showing that all this vast , t_evscr belt is connected, and that each one is a ventholc for the subterranean tires. But by this time we are surfeited with f.,.y,-ers. blase with wonders, and we make our way back to the little flower-embowered hotel to dream of red. black and white geysers, boiling springs and high spouters. and of what is all in all. I believe, the most wonderful valley in all the world. .