major_clanger | Hot Water In Every Room, And Outside Every Room Too

The next batch of NZ pics: Wairakei.

Wairakei is a cluster of assorted tourist attractions just to the north of Taupo, itself a medium-sized town on the shore of Lake Taupo, North Island's largest lake. A 600 square km body of water a hundred metres deep, it's impressive to realise that Lake Taupo is only 1800 years old, formed when a huge volcano blew itself to bits, leaving a vast caldera (now the lake) and a thick layer of ash over most of the surrounding countryside.

The geothermal zone extends south of the lake to form the Tongariro volcanoes (of which more soon) and north as a series of thermal hot-spots. Wairakei is right atop one of these, so much so that a geothermal power plant was built in the 1950s. The resulting changes in groundwater flow caused the creation of Craters of the Moon, a thermal hot-zone of fumaroles, mud pools and the odd large crater caused by steam explosions (which are fortunately fairly infrequent). COTM is a strange sight; the ground is too hot for tree roots, so instead there is a half-mile wide heath of gorse and lichen, with steaming vents scattered throughout. Even our hotel down the road had its own thermal activity, in the shape of a hot spring that flowed around the edge of the grounds. [As I noted to