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WONDERS OF NATURE
Rotorua valley. Nature miracle
There is probably no country on our planet that could compare with New Zealand in terms of the number of amazing, exotic and one-of-a-kind natural phenomena and objects collected on its relatively small territory. Volcanoes and geysers, caves and waterfalls, fjords and glaciers, rare reptiles and birds, unique trees and flowers - it's hard to even list all the wonders of nature with which this small state located in the "extreme south" amazes the traveler. But the most important miracle of New Zealand is the famous Rotorua Valley, which every guest of New Zealand considers it his duty to visit. And the New Zealanders themselves do not bypass this amazing nook of nature with their attention.
Rotorua is located in the center of New Zealand's North Island on the Volcanic Plateau. The Maori, longtime inhabitants of the island, named the valley Takiva-Waiariki, which means "Land of Hot Water". Even on the streets of the town of Rotorua, the center of this geothermal region, jets of white steam can be seen gushing from the cracks in the sidewalks. Hundreds of hot and cold springs are located in the vicinity of the town and on the shores of the lake of the same name. The Maori who lived here were clearly not timid people. They built their village of Vakarevareva in the heart of this unusual area, amid whistling jets of steam, gurgling hot springs, roaring geysers and bubbling mud pots. Moreover, they tried to make better use of the natural features of Rotorua: huts were built on plots with warm soil warmed from below, pools were built where they swam in hot water all year round, and they even boiled fish, immersing it in a kind of "string bag" directly into natural boiling water. And in our time, the hotels built here have pools filled with thermal waters, and the heating in the hotels provides the warmth of the earth's interior. But the main attraction of Rotorua is its famous geysers. There are dozens of them here, and jets, beating four or five meters in height, envelop clouds of steam and the shore of Lake Rotorua, and the outskirts of the village, where red wooden statues of Maori gods with fierce faces and protruding tongues lined up along the only street. The most powerful geyser - Pohutu - throws a jet of boiling water thirty meters up. Water eruption lasts for an hour, or even longer. Sometimes several geysers hit at the same time, and sometimes they "work" in turn, as if trying to surpass each other with the power of the jets and the unusual shape of the fountain. White siliceous deposits that adorn the holes of natural fountains have yellow hues, formed from hydrogen sulfide dissolved in water. Unfortunately, not all of this not too fragrant gas is deposited in the form of sulfuric secretions, and in the air of Rotorua, even on the approach to the lake, you can feel its specific "aroma". The Puarenga River, which flows into Lake Rotorua, is fed by cold and hot springs. In some places, the jets of springs do not have time to mix and, putting your hands into the water, you feel warm and cold at the same time. Hot springs also gush from the bottom of the lake. And on the island of Mokoya, located in the middle of it, the most famous and popular among tourists Hinemoa hot spring pours out, swimming in which is an obligatory ritual for visitors to Rotorua. Bathe in Hinemoa and local residents. For them, this is an ancient sacred rite that brings health and strength to warriors. Maori believe that every lake or hot spring in Rotorua has its own taniva-igarara - a dragon-like fairy-tale creature that guards its hot home from the encroachments of evil spirits. According to Maori legend, the moon itself disappears from the sky once a month to bathe in the magical underground lake Aeva, which feeds the geysers with water. Bathe in its living water. The moon is gaining strength and sets off on a new path across the sky. Therefore, the inhabitants of Vakarevarev willingly bathe in the waters of hot springs, which have such healing power. About ten kilometers southeast of this kingdom of geysers, in the crater of an extinct volcano, the famous Waimangu lakes are hidden - two reservoirs of blue and green colors. The color of the water in them is explained by the different composition of the rocks through which the springs flow, feeding the lakes. The multicolored waters are complemented here by the brightly colored rocks of the crater, which are sometimes given a red tint by iron oxides, and sulfur deposits - yellow. For many centuries, Waimanga was decorated with wonderful Pink and White Terraces, covering an area of more than five hectares and surpassing the beauty of their openwork cascades of calcareous tufa precipitated from hot springs, even the world-famous terraces of Pamukkale in Turkey. Travelers were especially struck by the White Terraces, which resembled a giant marble staircase covered with openwork carvings. Alas, in 1886, the catastrophic eruption of the nearby Tarawera volcano destroyed this rare masterpiece, created by thermal springs over many thousands of years, in one night. That year, on June 10, powerful tremors woke up residents in the district. A strong explosion split the top of Tarawera, and thick clouds of smoke and steam, illuminated by flashes of lightning, rose ten kilometers above the mountain. Flaming fragments separated from the fiery column and fell into the lake with a roar and splash. Soon it turned into a kind of hell, where a terrible mixture of mud and steam bubbled. Evergreen forests perished on the slopes of Taravera, fields and gardens in the district were destroyed. Two Maori villages were completely flooded by a mud stream, and a hail of volcanic bombs rained down on the neighboring town of Wairoa, which brought the death of sixteen of its inhabitants. The terraces were buried under a thick layer of volcanic ash and pieces of lava that flew out of the volcano's crater. However, the volcano itself could not block the hot springs forever. In 1900, in Waimangu, a gigantic fountain of hot water hit from the ground, the likes of which have not yet been seen in New Zealand. At that time, the Waimangu geyser was the most powerful in the world and threw out a powerful jet of water mixed with steam, stones and sand to a height of four hundred and fifty meters! He raged and roared for hours, then fell silent, but after thirty hours he again threw out a fountain of boiling water. It was not easy to calculate the time when the next water eruption would begin, and several inquisitive onlookers paid with their lives for trying to study the hushed giant. For four years, a giant geyser raged in the valley, shaking eyewitnesses with the fantastic size of its fountain. Then the Waimangu jet began to weaken, and in 1908 the geyser ceased to exist. Another thermal area lies fifty kilometers south of Rotorua, near New Zealand's largest lake, Taupo. Here, in the Wairakei valley, is the famous "steam cave" Karapiti, from which clubs of steam escape with great force, announcing the surroundings with a frightening roar. Here, in 1958, the world's first geothermal power plant was built, using groundwater to generate electricity. Lake Taupo itself is amazingly picturesque. The depth of this huge reservoir, located in the very center of the Volcanic Plateau, reaches a hundred meters. From the south, a mighty volcanic massif rises above the lake, including three of the country's four active volcanoes: Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe.
Ruapehu, the highest of them, reaches a height of almost two thousand eight hundred meters. This is the highest peak of the North Island. It is famous for its activity, erupting on average once every half a century and thus justifying its name, which means "Thundering Abyss" in the Ruapehu crater, there is a hot lake, which disappears before the volcanic eruptions, and then reborn again. The last outbreaks of Ruapehu activity were noted in 1945 and 1995. The shores of the hot lake are bordered by snowfields and glaciers, which also exist only in between eruptions. However, the most active of the New Zealand volcanoes is not Ruapehu, but its neighbor, Ngauruhoe, which is half a kilometer lower than its older brother. Clouds of steam constantly swirl above it, and ash emissions and outpourings of small portions of lava often occur. However, it happens that Ngauruhoe rages in earnest, and then red-hot stone blocks the size of a truck fly out of the crater. The calmest of the three volcanoes is Tongariro. It is also the lowest of the "mighty three": its height is less than two kilometers. The last eruption of Tongariro occurred in 1896. The top of the ancient volcano is furrowed with traces of past eruptions and is a whole labyrinth of destroyed craters. Only in one place on the northern slope do the hot springs of Ketetakhi beat, reminding of the turbulent past of the volcano that has not yet cooled down. Maori considered Ruapehu a sacred mountain, and in its vicinity it was not allowed to cut wood, fish, or hunt. And in 1887, the leader of the Maori Ngati Tuaharetoa tribe, Te Heuheu Tukino, presented the sacred land as a gift to the nation and it became the core of New Zealand's first and one of the world's first National Parks, called Tongariro. In addition to three volcanoes, in Tongariro Park, the traveler will see a huge forest area, almost unaltered by man. On the only highway, you can drive through beautiful subtropical forests, completely different from European, African or South American ones. Not a single tree here is known in other parts of the world. Coniferous rimu, deciduous myrrh, totara, matai rise among the impenetrable thickets of tree-like and grassy ferns. The abundance of aerial roots and flowers growing directly on tree trunks is striking. From a height of eight hundred meters, beech forests begin, rising to a level of one and a half kilometers. And above there are meadows, on which flowers and herbs that are completely unfamiliar to us also grow. But after a hundred meters they are replaced by eternal snow. The main miracle of these unusual forests is the bird world. What only outlandish birds are not here! White-eyed and fan-tailed dove, red-fronted parrot and New Zealand falcon, and, of course, the main attraction of the New Zealand bird world - kiwi. This unusual, brownish nocturnal bird the size of a chicken is more like some kind of animal. Because of the narrow and long shaggy feathers, it seems that it is covered with wool. The kiwi sleeps, leaning on its long beak, like on a third leg. The female once a year lays one huge egg, three times the size of a chicken and weighing half a kilogram, after which she provides further care for it to the male. Kiwis are not the only flightless birds in New Zealand. There are as many as thirty species here, and many of them surprise with their unusual habits or appearance. Among these feathered walkers are an owl parrot living on the ground in holes, a shepherd-weki and others. Unfortunately, the giant moa birds, exterminated in the Middle Ages, reaching a height of three meters and four hundred kilograms of weight, have not survived to this day. There are in Tongariro a beautiful large green nestor parrot and a thuja bird, famous for its surprisingly gentle singing. Only a bell bird can argue with her beauty of voice. Tui is so popular in New Zealand that many girls' families call her by her name. The British, who came to New Zealand in the XNUMXth century, brought and settled in the forests of the North Island many European animals and birds native to them. Therefore, in Tongariro you can meet the familiar blackbird, chaffinch, partridge or pheasant. There are also deer, chamois and hares, as well as feral pigs. The fact is that the British, mostly avid hunters, arrived on the island and discovered that there were no mammals here at all, except for two species of bats. And then, seized by the passion of hunting, the settlers decided to fill this gap in the fauna, because of which, as a result, local animals and plants suffered greatly. Even today, the park administration regularly invites hunters, offering them to shoot deer, pigs and hares that pose a threat to the nature of Tongariro. The densely populated North Island of New Zealand, where two-thirds of its population lives, has preserved protected forests and volcanoes, geysers and rare birds intact. Thousands of tourists walk the Tongariro trails every day, admire the geyser fountains in Rotorua and swim in the hot pools of the Wairakei Valley. There is no other country on our planet where National parks, reserves and other protected areas would occupy such a huge area - almost a fifth of the country. But the most popular among them are the unique corners of nature on the Volcanic Plateau among New Zealanders and guests of the country, and, first of all, the amazing miracle created by formidable underground forces on the outskirts of the Maori village of Vakarevareva, in the amazing valley of Rotorua geysers. Author: B.Wagner
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