Massive rhyolite domes make up much of the landscape and were
formed when lava oozed slowly from the vents and solidified. The
1,111 metre high Tarawera volcano is made up of three domes,
Wahanga, Ruawahia and Tarawera. To the right and out of sight, lies
Lake Rotomahana, on whose shores the World Famous Pink and White
Terraces cascaded.
Directly in front of you lies the Waitoharuru inlet of Lake
Tarawera. Boat trips to the Terraces were launched from here after
tourists were transported down from the nearby Te Wairoa Village,
prior to the Tarawera Eruption shortly after midnight on June the
10th, 1886. After the eruption, rescuers waded through mud to
launch rescue missions across the lake. The subsequent rising and
falling of the lake levels are clearly illustrated at the nearby
Frayed Kiwis cache.
The eruption ripped a 17km cleft across the Tarawera domes,
through Lake Rotomahana and up the Waimangu Valley. The Pink and
White Terraces were destroyed and the land for kilometres around
was coated with mud and volcanic ash. The activity began in the
Rotomahana basin when intruding magma - unerupted lava - triggered
a cataclysmic hydrothermal eruption. This was the climatic event of
the whole upheaval and "Rotomahana Mud" fell over a wide area of
the surrounding Bay of Plenty area. The nearby village of Te Wairoa
was buried under more than a metre of mud and volcanic ash and
other local Maori villages, camp sites and cultivations simply
disappeared. The known death toll exceeded 100 and information from
the nearby Buried Village states that more than 150 lives
were lost.
The loss to the Tuhourangi people, who owned the Terraces, was
devastating. In former times, the Waka - canoe - of the chief would
be placed on its end standing upright and partially buried into the
ground during the Tangihanga - passing ceremony. To signify the
homage and gratitude rendered to the great leader Tuhourangi, a
symbolic Waka has been placed in this fashion at this historical
site.
Iwi - extended family - from as far away as the Far North,
Coromandel and the East Coast offered gifts of land for the
surviving Tuhourangi people to re-establish their lives. It is the
dream of Tuhourangi to one day return to their ancestral lands.
Tuhourangi have a spiritual interpretation of the events of 10
June 1886 and this is well documented in many media. I would
recommend visiting the Rotorua museum in Government gardens and
watching the short audio -visual presentation, hosted by Temura
Morrison, for an excellent explanation of this. Time should be
taken while you are at this earthcache to read the sign entitled
"Tangata Whenua - The People of this Land", which is in both Maori
and English. The legend as told here explains the events and
provides an outlet for the grief felt.
I hope that the visit to this site has been useful and
informative to you, blending as it does natural occurrences and
legend. Yet this has happened in a time scale so recent that it is
only one generation from people alive today and has forced
significant environmental and social change upon the local
landscape.
Questions to answer: The answers can be found or inferred
from the signs at the viewing platform.
Directly across the road behind you, the road has been cut
through the surface rock.
- What is the predominant colour of the rock?
- Explain the layering effect seen.
- A different colour may be seen near the surface. What colour is
this and where did it come from?
- To the already carved Waka, what would be added to show tribal
connections?
- What happened "as I look to Whakapoukorero"?
Please answer the above questions prior to logging the cache by
emailing me. As well, a photo of part of
yourself, GPSr visible and with the location clearly
identifiable must be posted with your log to claim this as a
'find'. Logs containing 'answers' - including photos of the answers
- will be deleted. Obviously, the cache must be found during the
day. Thank you.
Placed
by a member of the Kiwicaching
Association of New Zealand.
