Sidestep: Lake Rotomahana

The pink and white terraces near Lake Tarawera were quite famous once. Often regarded as the 8th wonder of the world and they are shown below in a painting by JBC Hoyte with the white terraces in the distance across the lake.

But did you know there was another formation called Te Tuhi's spring plus two more, also with silica terraces. They are not well known because they were much harder to access being further back from the lake - (to the right and far behind the pink terraces as viewed from the old lake), so this spring and 2 others were never included on the organised tours prior to 1886. The spring fed creek ran behind the small hill behind the pink terraces in the above illustration. I cannot find a single photo of them or of the Te Tuhi spring which fed them. All of it is lost - not lost under the new lake, but still on land... buried under probably 3-4m of ash back from the new level of Rotomahana near the current boat landing site. The black terrace was something that formed after the pink and white terraces were destroyed and comprised of the black terrace spring (Te Tuhi), the black terrace crater and the black terrace stream.

Te Tuhi's Spring (wrongly called the Black Terrace) first appeared in Hochstetter's 1859 map of the lake and was the third major silica sinter terrace at the lake, along with the better known Pink and White Terraces. Black Terrace and Black Terrace Crater are discrete, vicinal sites. A field search was made for their location in 2018. Te Ngāwhā a Te Tuhi, translated as Te Tuhi’s Spring (and later confused with Black Terrace Crater) was one of the geothermal attractions around old Lake Rotomahana. From the preceding words Te Ngāwhā … Te Tuhi is most likely a person’s name (the sentence indicates Te Tuhi is a noun). Te Ngāwhā a Te Tuhi and Tamariwi were hot springs with silica terraces; on the west and north sides of the lake. These were not included on the nineteenth century organised tours, for they were not as accessible as the Pink and White Terraces. The first western record is by Hochstetter who visited Te Tuhi’s Spring, sketched its location (below), painted it (we cannot find that yet) and included it on his 29-30/4/1859 maps at the lake: "A little beyond the lake, in a small side-valley, lies the Atetuhi;…". That it was a significantly notable silica terrace is attested by its inclusion on the boundary of the 1861 map by Petermann, requiring a border extension to accommodate it.

There were many other springs, mudholes and intermittent fountains but there was nothing on the south side of the lake at all. That is still the case and the southernmost activity is south-west forming the Waimangu Volcanic Valley. Ferdinand von Hochstetter visited the area in 1859 and while making maps and drawing sketches etc, he noticed many small earthquakes, so the area was always one of danger. Below are one of his maps. Te Puhi's spring area is to the extreme left of the illustration and is enlarged to the right. You can make out a short but distinct set of terraces to the right of the spring ending in a point.

It was an ordeal to get to these terraces. The journey from Auckland was typically by steamer to Tauranga, the bridle track to Ohinemutu on Lake Rotorua, by coach to Te Wairoa, by canoe across Lake Tarawera, and then on foot or by canoe up and/or down the Kaiwaka Channel; over the hill to the swampy shores of Lake Rotomahana and on to the terraces. That was some journey in those days and mostly the rich were the clientele of the welcoming Maori; eager to reap fifteen hundred pounds a year in revenue (a massive sum for Maori in 1886). Below is an overview from an area of the hill behind the pink terraces as discussed above, looking back from where TeTuhi's spring existed..

The terraces lay under the shadow of Tarawera when it blew on 10th June 1886. The eruption was very destructive. In those four hours, some 2 km3 of pulverized rock, scoria and lava was ejected. About half the volume came from the summit eruption, and half from the Rotomahana explosion. Yes, it wasn't just the mountain... even Rotomana's crater lake itself blew up. There was the mountain and the lake, both blew. The power of the Rotomahana explosion came from the interaction with the lake water. All of the casualties at Tarawera came from the lake explosion.

THE ERUPTION OF TARAWERA

This illustration clearly shows Rotomahana (right) erupting, not with lava like Tarawera, but eruptive steam explosions.

In recent times they began searches on land and underwater for the remains. The white terrace was obliterated by the Rotomahana explosion, the pink one obliterated at the bottom near the lake with the rest and the spring that fed it, covered in mud and debris. The bottom of the old lake was obliterated and full of holes and streaming craters with no water at all - although water began to fill the void rapidly soon after. After the eruption, a crater over 100 metres (330 ft) in depth encompassed the former site of the terraces as show. After some years this filled with water to form a new Lake Rotomahana, 30–40 metres higher and ten times larger and deeper than the old lake. The photo below from 1921 shows the steep walls of the new lake, revealing the force of the blast from below that created the new crater that would eventually fill with water.

Below are other photographs taken after the eruption died down. They show no obvious signs of the terraces (photo 3) below. Possible remnants of the upper levels of the pink terraces (the lower levels were actually white) may have been photographed underwater since.

click arrows to view images

Not enough of the original landscape had survived for them to get their bearings. The Auckland Evening Star newspaper described the scene, shortly after the eruption: “instead of a splendid sheet of water, there was opened out immediately beneath our feet, its edge not 250 yards distant, a huge crater, belching out showers of mud and stones from innumerable yawning mouths, amid dense volumes of steam and smoke, with a din and roar and rattle baffling description. Stones were being ejected high into the air from eleven separate orifices or small craters, on the side nearest to us, and the volumes of steam and smoke prevented further vision into the centre of the old lake site. A partial clearing away of the vaporous envelope, however, occasionally gave a brief glimpse into the gloomy recesses of the great crater revealing only a bed of steaming seething mud in flats and hillocks, bubbling and spouting in ceaseless ebullition. A small patch of discoloured water was dimly distinguishable in one part, but the lake was gone—not only the water, but the bottom driven out, scooping the bed to a depth of at least 250 feet below the old level…. The great crater was over a mile long and half a mile wide.”

After the eruption, in which TePuhi was destroyed a rather large crater opened up in its place which was called 'the black terrace' for much of the debris was darker. The eruption at this new crater continued for two days, and with less potency for a few weeks later until it died. Much of its earlier activity is shown in 3 of the 4 photos above. "Te Ngawha Atetuhi," once only a little boiling spring, was now several 'acres' in extent. The Black Terrace Crater that appeared after Tarawera blew is actually quite a misleading term as there was nothing black about it, or any signs of a terrace formation whatever.

Steam eruptions continued in the crater for several months, but within 15 years it filled with water so the lake has since filled up and has risen by 30 meters or more and any remnant would now be under water. But this rise came slowly after the eruption, and the early searches had a dry view of any surviving areas. Even if they had been buried by deep Rotomahana mud, part of them could easily have been uncovered as the mud was washed away. The steps between Terraces could be several meters. It therefore seems likely that the Pink Terraces too were mostly or fully destroyed. Heat measurements have shown that the hydrothermal system beneath the Pink Terraces still exists. The hot water now mainly exits below the lake, but there are also geysers along the western shore. There is nothing from the white location.

Tarawera ands the terraces held few legends that we know of bar one. A lizard like Taniwha was supposed to live in the lake. This huge, 24 feet long monster resembling a crocodile, is said to haunt the clefts between the rocks, devouring every one who dares to scale the mountain. The Rev. Mr. Chapman, a well-known missionary of Maketu, ascended the mysterious mountain. After searching for a long time he found a small lizard scarcely span-long, which he took with him to show to the Maoris, and to convince them, what kind of crocodiles really live there. An aged chief on seeing the lizard made the funny remark, that, if that huge monster was no longer seen, it must have been eaten up by cats. (!)

First impressions of the old lake were not great. It was a swampy barren place with a small dirty-green lake with marshy shores and dreary treeless hills covered only in ferns and scrub. The lake lacked all and every beauty of landscape scenery; and it is only by the steam clouds ascending everywhere, that led some to suspect something worth seeing. And were those sights spectacular! People came from England by boat just to view them. The local tribe made a fortune from tourism. Maybe that upset the gods for a powerful tohunga (Tuhoto-ariki) was suspected of calling the taniwha to disturb the earth and by his incantations set free the powers of Tarawera mountain, destroying the terraces of Rotomahana, and burying the tribes of Rangi-Tihi and Tu-hou-rangi beneath 20 feet of mud. It may, perhaps, be well to describe what a Maori understands by the word taniwha, and to do this will necessitate a short history of some of the most famous of these monsters. Some of them are described as lizard-like in form, and man-eaters by profession, and this variety would seem for the most part to live under water in dark, deep holes. Others would seem to have been mere harmless lizards, though of great size; but the really dangerous type had the power to take any shape, and were possessed of supernatural powers.

There is also the legend of the phantom Maori waka. Eleven days before the 1886 eruption a Maori guide named Sophia, was leading a tour group when suddenly the lake level fell, then rose again. This phenomenon was accompanied by an ‘eerie whimpering sound’. Shortly afterwards a phantom canoe appeared with a sole paddler. The canoe grew bigger as it approached the tourists and contained a crew of 13, each with a dog’s head. The ghostly waka then shrank and disappeared. Tuhoto Ariki, interpreted this as a warning; the exploitation of the Terraces as a tourist attraction showed no regard to ancestral values - even the shells in the carvings of the meeting house “Hinemihi” were replaced by gold coins! Nothing will ever persuade the Arawa nation that Tuhoto did not cause the Tarawera eruption, in order to avenge an offensive remark made to him by certain members of the Tuhourangi tribe. Their argument is sound, for they say “he had the power to avenge the insult, and, therefore, he would be certain to use that power.” That summer the flax had also failed to flower - a sign of an earthquake many believed. The community also suffered a seemingly unending succession of deaths over recent months, some from typhoid, and tangi (funerals) had become an almost daily occurrence. Even Te Kooti (a warrior prophet) had visited and warned the Maori to leave the area that same year, predicting some kind of doom. The old tohunga (Tuhoto-ariki) who had caused such consternation with his dire prophecies, was buried in his whare by the eruption. Many Maori, believed him responsible for the eruption and did not touch what they assumed was his resting place as it would only bring new misfortune. However, pakeha decided that they should recover the body of the old man. He was alive and had survived for four days. He did not want to be pulled out preferring to die there. But they did, cut his hair, removed his tapu and he died elsewhere.

Around 150 people lost their lives. Maori believed that many more had perished that night. The exact number of casualties has never been determined but only 6 Europeans died as most survivors were in guide Sophia's strong whare.

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B - site of the old black terrace... post eruption

So, according to Maori legend and belief, the 8th wonder of the world was lost due to the exploitation of the terraces for greed as a tourist attraction by Maori and also Maori showing no regard to ancestral values (Maori owned the rights to the tourism - not the European). I'm not sure what those ancestral values were as no burial areas are anywhere near the terraces. Nor were there any old legends pertaining to them specifically... only the taniwha of Mt Tarawera.

Here's a great link to personal observations of Ferdinand von Hochstetter in 1867 without whom we would have very little knowledge of the pre-eruption landscape - http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/?wid=452 .