The land that rumbles

NZ is not for the faint hearted, and I am not talking about the bungee. Irrespective of whether u signed up for the adventure activities or not, the day you land, your adventure begins. You feel close to nature, sometimes a little too close and a little too aware of the earth you stand on. The world’s most recent super-eruption (one that can cause long lasting climates changes and extinctions) occurred in New Zealand, 26,500 years ago. And though it might feel like a long time ago, thanks to the Pacific Ring of Fire that it sits on,  things here are still quite bubbly!

When you walk on the streets surrounding the geothermal area of Rotorua the air smells of rotten egg and you see fumes coming off from everywhere.

When u walk on the ‘Craters of the moon’ geothermal walkway, u can here the mud around you bubbling and steam geysers whistling, almost ready to go off like a pressure cooker.

Before the Yellowstone geyser in the USA, the Waimangu volcanic valley in New Zealand had the largest geyser in the world. It used to erupt in a cycle of 36 hours, till one fine (or not so fine) day in 1904, it stopped completely. Water levels in a lake around 20kms away coincidentally rose. There are still a number of small geysers in and around the region.

Taupo, the largest lake in NZ is the caldera of a dormant (note: not extinct, but dormant) volcano.  

There are around 15000 earthquakes every year in New Zealand, around 200 of which can be felt. A hotel room we stayed in had this notice.

New Zealand made me feel transient and minuscule. Here I was, on a small vacation in my journey of life, walking on a land, created thousands of years ago; land that still rumbles and smokes and is still so active, it has the potential to change tomorrow.