Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Valley

Hello, we are two students from Tauhara Primary, a neat primary school situated in Taupō. We are inquiring into the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Valley. Our names are Celeste and Aaliyah and we have chosen this topic because we were interested in the volcanic and thermal activities such as the Lady Knox Geyser, steaming grounds, coloured hot and cold pools, and boiling mud.

We visited Wai-O-Tapu and found these sites:

Lady Knox Geyser

First we went to the Lady Knox Geyser it was a really fun experience. We got spat on by the Lady Knox while it was blowing water out of it's top. In the younger days the Lady Knox looked nothing like what it looks like now it was like a little hot pool. One of our highlights was Lady Knox. Her initial erupting height will be up to 10-15 metres and will last for about 2-3 minutes.

Champagne Pool

One of the large steaming hot springs we saw was the Champagne Pool. It is the largest of the water hot springs at Wai-O-Tapu. This has become known also as the Artist's Palette because of the many colours that strike over its surface. Some of the colours are clear or blue, cloudy yellow, orange, green, and grey.

Craters

There are well over a dozen craters located in Wai-O-Tapu. They are up to 20 metres deep. All of them were formed by the ground surface collapsing. The newest crater collapsed in 1968. Many craters have different types of geothermal activity like steam, fumeroles, sulphur, and bubbling pools. Colours are put into the area by the different chemicals such as manganese - purple, iron oxide - red/brown, and sulphur - yellow. These colours are the colours of what they are if you see them.

Mud Pools

If you're visiting Wai-O-Tapu as we have recommended you would not want to miss the sensational mud pools.

Geysers

In the old days there used to be 300 geysers but now there is only 15.

To find out more about Wai-O-Tapu <------- click here

This is one of the tourist attractions in the Taupō area. We highly recommend you visit the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Valley. Wai-O-Tapu is 160,000 years old and is located right on a volcanic caldera.