Lady Knox Geyser at the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal reserve

Everyday, at 10:30 ( or so ) this Geyser, Lady Knox ( yes, they all have a name ) erupts why, so precisely , everyday, like clockwork ?because they add about a kilo of soap flakes, there is hot water sitting underneath, deep down, held down by a layer of cold water, which is more dense, hence, holding the pressure down of the hot water, eventually, the pressure builds too much and breaks through the layer of cold water, and erupts, but as this is a park, with an entry fee, they need a daily eruption, on time, to coincide with the tour buses 🙂
So the soap added, softens the layer of cold water, making it less dense and allowing the pressure releaseand it is quite the spectacle eruption lasts about 40 minutes or so and naturally, the mound gets bigger, with the build up of silica starting to loose its steam a bit now time to check out the thermal reserve adjacent and in this reserve, a step up again from previous active thermal area we visited, has lots of big gaping holes, with names such as devils hole, has big holes and collapsed holes with steam coming out everywhere but then the baths with the build up of minerals, the colour, amazing so pretty that’s the champagne pool in the background sulphur is yellow so orange would be another mineral the contrasts looks more like a coral reef in the tropics beautiful but very hot big silica run off steaming 🙂 the colour of this pool just amazing