Waimangu Run

Sunday 9th April 2017

Fingers crossed and it paid off. Sunday dawned a nice fine day, certainly didn’t want to cancel the Waimangu run again.

The Tauranga locals met at the County Council carpark at 9.45am. After the usual ‘how do you do’s’ we were on the road at 10.00am, heading for Waimangu Valley, south of Rotorua via the direct route through Ngongataha.

We all arrived safely at Waimangu and met up with other Members that came from other than Tauranga, making 52 Members in total. Our run organisers Bruce Jamieson and Bruce MacDiarmid had arrived early, and had all our car parks marked so we were all together, and a place earmarked for the Concourse judging of the cars for the Concourse Cup.

Because of the numbers, we were divided in to two groups to do the boat cruise and bus trip. After we all purchased our tickets, and the Members who were buying their lunch at the Café had done so, Group 1 went on the bus first, and stopped at the picnic area half way to the boat, where there were picnic tables and toilets about 200 yards from the from the bus stop.

The weather had clouded over by this time, and there was quite a cool breeze blowing, so we had our picnic lunch in somewhat cool conditions.

While Group 1 were busy lunching, Group 2, which had the Concourse judges in their lot had got into the judging of the cars. Then their turn came to climb on the bus, and they arrived at the picnic area for lunch. They disembarked the bus, and Group 1 piled on and headed on the rest of the journey to the boat.

The road was windy and narrow with the odd passing spot. It was actually a nice ride down to the boat, passing hot lakes and the odd bubbling pool.

At the end of the road it was about a 10-minute walk to the boat jetty, where we boarded the Ariki Moana to go on our cruise of Lake Rotomahana.

Before 10th June, 1886, two small lakes existed in the area of the now Lake Rotomahana. Maori named them Lake Rotomakiri (Cold Lake) and Rotomahana (Warm Lake). Both lakes drained into Lake Tarawera via an overflow stream to the North end.

All this was changed on the 10th June, 1886. It started with earthquakes at 2.00am. At 3.00am, an enormous cloud rose above Rotomahana. Tarawera Mountain erupted causing a succession of craters in both directions extending 16 kilometres. Masses of boiling lava and ash descended rapidly and flowed across the surrounding country and inundated a circle of about 6 kilometres. Near the edge of the crater which formed at Rotomahana, the deposit reached 40 metres deep.

This changed the lakes’ formation, and today it is twenty times bigger than it was prior to 1886.

The boat cruise took us over where the White Terraces used to exist, and Pink Terraces now covered with several metres of water, into one of the craters. As we passed steaming cliffs and small geysers, traces of geothermal activity were evident everywhere, and always in the back ground was the ominous Mount Tarawera, forever threatening.

At the completion of the boat cruise, Group 2 went for their cruise and the rest of us boarded the bus for our return trip to the car park. Back at the reception, we had a coffee and waited for the other group to return.

On their return, we said our goodbyes and headed in various directions for home. Another good day out with good people.

The results of the Concourse judging will be announced at the AGM.

By Phil and Ngiare Barron