Pool At Rotorua Erupts

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31139, 16 August 1966, Page 3

Pool At Rotorua Erupts

(N.Z. Press Association) ROTORUA, August 15. The Rachel pool in the Government Gardens, Rotorua, erupted violently at 1 a.m. today, hurling water over a large area of lawns and gardens.

The pool erupted five times between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., Suing off each time with a roar that frightened a resi-

dent in the nearby Garden Horae for elderly men. The force of water erupted from the spring burst a hole in the concrete surroundings of the pool, swept earth from gardens, and filled to overflowing the casting pool nearby. This morning workmen roped off about an acre of the surrounding gardens, including most of the casting pool, and part of the area ad-

joining the blue baths building. Members of the public are being kept at least 30 yards from the pool. The ground in the area is still shaking. One of the few witnesses of the eruption was Mr C. K. Holden, of Garden Home. He was up about 1 a.m. when the pool went off with a noise “like someone opening the escape valve on a steam boiler.” He said he raced to his bedroom window and saw a column of steam going up “at least a couple of hundred feet.”