A Geothermal Experience

Our next stop that same day was to a geothermal park called Waimangu Volcanic Valley. There is a lot of geothermal activity in New Zealand and I wanted to go to one of the many parks that are there to see some of it. This is a picture of what is called "Frying Pan Lake." It resembles the shape of a frying pan, and yes that is gas coming off of it. It is not regular steam though. Yes, it is apparently hot, but it is also sulfer gas. So it really smelled there too. You can even see sulfer gas coming out of the mountian on the right side of the picutre. This is the worlds largest hot water spring (in surface area)




This is us at Inferno Lake. A VERY blue water lake that rises and falls on the order of 16m in a matter of about 2 weeks. You can see the upper level in the picutre indicated by the white line. The blue is just SO deep that is was very cool. It has this color due to the make up of the chemicals in the water reflecting and refracting the light in such a way that the color blue it is is the color that makes it to your eye (or the camera in this case). This is the worlds largest Crypto Geyser.