Kauaenui
Literally translated as jaw or chin (kauae) many (nui),
this portion of the Hamurana Springs complex illustrates
Mother Nature at her most artistic.
Without being able to source an 'official' place name1 definition, my interpretation of the name is that it refers to tattoos (Tā moko2), or more specifically, chin tattoos (Moko kauae). The geographical shape, down to the Hamurana Stream, could also be described as being like a jawbone.
Groundwater
Groundwater3 has been identified as an important resource within the Rotorua and surrounding geological areas. It is used for household, municipal, industrial, agricultural and horticultural purposes.
Important deep groundwater resources (typically 60-200m deep) are present in fractured ignimbrite4 and / or rhyolite5 deposits in the Rotorua area and Mamaku Formation6. Ignimbrite aquifers are typically confined where overlain by low-permeability, welded ignimbrite units.
Lake Rotorua is a regional groundwater discharge zone, including from the Hamurana Springs complex and itself is a feeder to L. Rotoiti and the Kaituna River Catchment. The nearby Virtual cache has further information on the major spring in this complex.
The quality of lake water in the Rotorua area has been compromised by land use - which also affects the quality of the groundwater. Long groundwater residence times between 40 and 100 years are common in the thick deposits of Mamaku Plateau Formation7 ignimbrites. This causes the delayed arrival of nutrient-laden groundwater to the lake. With obvious long-term consequences and planning difficulties.
The Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Protection and Restoration Program8 is a $200 million program to protect and restore water quality in the Rotorua Te Arawa lakes. L. Rotorua is one of four priority lakes. In 2011, it recorded the best water quality in decades. There are two Phosphorus-Locking Plants at Utihina and Puarenga, treating the nutrient in the streams before it gets to the lake. The key to long-term sustainable water quality is to reduce nutrients in land use. A combination of rules and incentives to reduce nitrogen getting into the lake are in the early stages of development.
Further background information is given in 'Resources', below.
Questions:
- The questions below are designed to be answered while standing on the bridge at GZ, with the white name sign, which is at one end of the bridge, on your right.
- Describe, in your own words, the phenomenon occurring, looking over the side of the bridge?
- Estimate the size (width) of the smallest phenomenon?
- Estimate the size (width) of the largest phenomenon? (Not the one in the next question)
- Two of the apparent phenomena are not quite like the others. They are also distinctly larger and the one on the far left is between two rocks. The one on the right is about 2 m from the edge. Why do you think this is peculiar?
- Proof of actual visit question: Describe the feature on the East side that you walked over (by the white name sign) near GZ. How long is it (in paces) and how many railings are there in one side of the fence on either side of it? (Both sides have the same number of railings.)
- Please feel free to log this cache immediately you find it and also email me the answers to the above questions as verification.
- Please do not include photographs that will enable the phenomenon to be accurately described or the 'feature' near the white name sign (This is to encourage 'actual' visits), otherwise the log may have to be deleted. Photos of the general area and phenomenon are encouraged. Thank you.
- Obviously, the cache must be found during the day.
Disclaimer:
26/12/17 Please be aware that there is now an admission charge ($18 pp currently) to access this area.
Due to this, all of my other caches (6) in the area have been archived. This and a virtual
Clean Green Wonderland, remain.
I do not condone the recent commercial activities in this area. I would not recommend paying fees to pick up caches. However, as this is a zero impact cache and cachers have free will, and may choose to visit this beautiful area, I’ve decided to keep this cache active.:
Wheelchairs: The route is hardpack and / or grass and is easily wheeled, although there is one short uphill section at the virtual and a few minor cross-track roots at one spot and I would suggest an assistant.
Resources:
1 Place Names Care needs to be taken when literally translating Maori place names, as with any language translation, as words may be created from a description, have a particular (local) meaning, be transformed over time due to external influences or be incorrectly transcribed. Amongst other reasons.
Malcolm McKinnon. 'Place names - Māori and Pākehā names', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 23-Nov-09
2 Tā moko Many historical accounts of tattooing indicate that people who received these were pre-pubescent. Their moko symbolised a rite of passage into adulthood for both boys and girls. Early observers noted that until moko had been acquired a boy could not be referred to as a warrior, or a girl as ready for marriage. Moko kauae (chin tattooes) were often done in groups of sisters, or of related members of a hapū. Often these young women were chosen by their elders to receive the moko as markers for their future roles amongst the people.
Rawinia Higgins and Paul Meredith. 'Ngā tamariki – Māori childhoods - Māori children’s upbringing', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 29-Jun-11
3 Groundwater Geology of the Rotorua Area (p68 and further resources as cited in the text)
ISBN 978-0-478-19778-5
© Copyright Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited 2010
4 Ignimbrite In the early 1930's, Patrick Marshall realised that many of the sheet-like rhyolite deposits in the area were the result of a ground-hugging cloud of hot fragments (a gravity controlled pyroclastic flow that fills valleys, with only a thin layer over ridges, the largest burying the old landscapes, forming plateaus - such as Mamaku) and he named the rock 'Ignimbrite', derived from the Latin 'ignis' (fiery) and 'imber' (spray). The term is now used worldwide to describe such rocks. Depending on the temperature of the deposit, the particles within the ignimbrite can either fuse, leaving a hard welded ignimbrite or leave a loose, non-coherent deposit (3p36 The term 'ignimbrite').
5 Rhyolite Silicic lava (Magma) flows over the Earth's surface, once eruption rates wane and the magma is de-gassed, creating a dome over the vent as the viscous lava flows over cooling lava, often forming a fan around the base as the oversteepened edge falls away in (localised pyroclastic) block-and-ash flows. Occasionally a large eruption may result in widespread pyroclastic flows and ground collapse, forming a caldera (3p31 Silicic volcanism, p32 Figure 31).
6 Mamaku Formation This is composed of lavas and pyroclastic deposits from the Haroharo dome, by L. Tarawera, 8,010 +/- 50 years ago (3p49 Figure 48, p51-54 Okataina Volcanic Centre, p100 Appendix 1).
7 Mamaku Plateau Formation This underlies the Mamaku plateau and is inferred to be associated with the collapse of the Rotorua caldera, now partially filled by L. Rotorua. The Mamaku Plateau Formation has been Argon dated at 240 +/- 11 thousand years old (3p40 Rotorua Volcanic Centre (Mamaku Plateau Formation), p42 ...formations: stratigraphic relationships, p102 Appendix 1).
8 Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Rotorua Lakes - Bay of Plenty Regional Council
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