Waiotapu in Rotorua New Zealand was super cool. We saw & smelt ?the geothermal activity & what is considered the largest hot spring in New Zealand. The champagne pool & it’s overflow pool were the most colorful with concentrations of suspended minerals of sulphur, antimony, gold & silver, Mercury, arsenic & thallium. It occupies a 700 year old crater that was formed by a hydrothermal eruption. It is over 62 meters or 203 feet deep and water enters the pool from a deep spring that is 446 degrees before cooling to its upper level temp of 165 degrees. It is nicknamed the champagne pool because small bubbles are seen rising throughout the lake which are carbon dioxide which is a common gas found in volcanic regions. The overflow pool is called Roto Karakitea & it was also very brightly colored & just as smelly…the kids said it smelt like egg salad sandwiches & rotten eggs ?
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