Fire, Flood, Pestilence ~

Ironman Triathlon at Two Mile Bay

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_Triathlon

When we returned to the car again and resumed our drive on State Highway 1, we were obliged to follow the diverted traffic signs to wherever they would take us.

It was assumed that all anyone would be interested in doing that day in that area is find somewhere to park to watch and support the competitors.

When we arrived at an area called Two Mile Bay, we were all obliged to stop and park or turn the car around and resume our drive on State Highway 1 out of the Lake Taupo area.

As we didn't want to that just yet we parked in one of the spaces provided and embarked upon our lakeside walk at that point.

Although this triathlon is considered one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world, we were amazed at how few spectators there were there compared to how many would have been at such an event anywhere in the UK.

"The Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC)".

"It consists of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile (42.20 km) run, raced in that order".

We found ourselves in Two Mile Bay probably at the start of the marathon run as we saw runners on the lakeside track which had been cordoned off for them for this event.

"The Ironman Triathlon is widely considered one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world".

"Most Ironman events have a limited time of 16 or 17 hours to complete the race".

"The race typically starts at 7:00am; the mandatory swim cut off for the 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim is 9:20am (2 hours 20 minutes), the mandatory bike cut off time is 5:30pm (8 hours 10 minutes), and the mandatory marathon cut off is midnight (6 hours 30 minutes)".

As we saw runners on that track at 11:44 am, we assumed that they had already completed the swim and the bike ride elements of the competition although the cycle track next to the runners track still had cyclists competing on it so I suppose participants went at their own pace within the cut-off times within each category.

The participants were clearly extremely fit and they must have trained for hours to prepare for such a feat of sheer physical endurance, but they looked like ordinary people of all ages, shapes and sizes.

When you read about competitions of this kind, you always imagine the participants to look incredibly athletic, almost superhuman.

In this competition "any participant who manages to complete the triathlon within the time constraints is designated an Ironman".

The people we saw running and cycling did not look like ironmen at all but many clearly were.

"The Ironman World Championship has become known for its grueling length, harsh race conditions, and relentless television coverage".

We saw several TV cameras there that morning but as we did not have access to a TV for most of our remaining time in New Zealand, we didn't manage to see any news reports about it on television at all but we have since seen quite a few of those news reports on YouTube.

Of course we hadn't planned to be Ironman spectators that day but it was actually rather an interesting experience especially as we could continue with our walk at a safe distance whilst watching the participants race by.

Our lake Taupo walk was excellent in spite of the overcast, drizzly weather which as usual would clear up later, but I must say that being Ironman spectators for a few hours certainly diverted us far more than we thought it would.

Ironman

Runners on the lakeside track

Beautiful Lake Taupo location for Ironman competition

The Ironman Marathon on Two Mile Bay

Ironman competitors

Taupo-nui-a–Tia - The Great Cloak of Tia

https://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/Learning/Science-Topics/Volcanoes/New-Zealand-Volcanoes/Taupo-Volcano

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tia_(Māori_explorer)

We had been walking and admiring the Ironman competitors for almost two hours when we decided to have a coffee and a late breakfast at a beachside café on the Ironman route.

The café was on a little pier area jutting into the lake with an open air section at the far end of it with two tables which were both unoccupied so we sat at the most isolated one close to the outer edge, it felt as if we we actually sitting on a boat in the lake as it even undulated a little with the waves.

We placed our order with the server through a serving hatch leading straight to the kitchen but we stayed outside the entire time and no one else ever joined us.

I always carried hand gel with me even before the covid era hit the Southern Hemisphere proper, so I still had several bottles that I had brought with me from the UK.

We cleaned our hands with gel before eating as we always did and that week I also started putting a little gel on a paper towel and cleaned tables, chairs and other surfaces we would come into contact with.

This was a very pretty spot indeed in spite of the overcast weather and occasional spots of rain.

We admired the many cormorants that came and went, the black swans, the noisy gulls and the different types of ducks we saw swimming in the lake.

It looked like one of the most peaceful and serene spots on the planet but the expression 'never trust a book by its cover', was certainly the case here.

We were sitting on the banks of a ‘supervolcano’ and "one of the most frequently active and productive rhyolite calderas in the world".

"That huge caldera (or collapsed crater) has been partly filled by Taupo, New Zealand’s largest lake", but things are not always what they seem.

"That caldera was created by subsidence of the ground surface due to emptying of the magma chamber in huge eruptions".

"Its present magma chamber is between 6 and 8 km below the lake".

"Although Taupo's Volcano has much more violent eruptions than usual cone volcanoes, they are fortunately less frequent".

"It began erupting about 300,000 years ago and the present day caldera was created by a super explosion 27,000 years ago called the Oruanui Eruption".

"Between this and the ‘Taupo Eruption’ (1800 years ago) there were at least 26 much smaller eruptions which formed lava domes and spread pumice and ash over nearby areas".

"The massive Oruanui Eruption can only be imagined but the Taupo eruption form 1800 years ago, was certainly the most violent eruption known in the world in the last 5000 years".

"The eruption plume reached 50km into the air, well into the stratosphere".

"All of New Zealand received at least 1cm of ash, with areas near the lake being buried in more than 100 metres of pyroclastic flow".

"This scorching hot flow spread up to 90 km from the vent and covered all local features except Ruapehu".

"It is now believed that ash from this eruption was the cause of red sunsets recorded by both the Romans and the Chinese at that time", in which case the impact of that eruption was felt in every corner of the world.

"Considering recent history, the Taupo volcano has been inactive for an unusually long period of time, but considering its long-term activity, it was inactive for much longer between 8100 and 5100 BCE (3,000 years of inactivity, compared to the current 1,800 years)".

"Some volcanoes within the Taupo Volcanic Zone have erupted far more recently, however, notably a violent VEI-5 eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886, and frequent activity of Whakaari/White Island, which erupted most in December 2019".

Some fear that when Taupo erupts again it could be another Orauanui super eruption, in which case, all of New Zealand and much of Australia would need to be evacuated as the damage would be so extensive that the geography of that entire continent could be totally transformed.

In Maori mythology Lake Taupo is known as the Great Cloak of Tia.

Maori Chief Tia is thought to have discovered the lake one day on his travels.

"Along the shores of Lake Taupo Chief Tia noticed some peculiar coloured cliffs that resembled his rain coat and named them "the great cloak of Tia" or Taupō-nui-a-Tia".

"This name was later shortened and given to the lake and township".

All anyone can hope for is that Lake Taupo continues to remain as peaceful and serene for the foreseeable future as it was that day when we were sitting on its banks admiring the wildlife and watching the runners in the distance, and if / when the next super eruption does occur it will be a very long time into the future when humanity (if still there) willl have discovered new technologies which will assist in the management of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes and so reduce the devastating impact that such an explosion would have not just on New Zealand but on the entire planet

Lakeside café on Lake Taupo

Our lake side table on the jetty in Lake Taupo

Such a peaceful, serene location with a super volcano in its depths

Could this really be the site of the most devastating volcanic eruption the planet has ever known?

Arrival of a cormorant on Lake Taupo

Cormorant stretching its wings on Lake Taupo

Ironman runners on the banks of Lake Taupo

Cormorant on Taupo

Rotarua Central

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotorua

Our next port of call that day was Rotorua, which is approximately an hour's drive from Lake Taupo.

"Rotorua is a city on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua from which the city takes its name".

"It is located in the Bay of Plenty and is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompassing Rotorua and several other nearby towns".

"Rotorua has an estimated resident population of 58,500, making it the country's 12th largest urban area, and the Bay of Plenty's second largest urban area behind Tauranga".

"Rotorua is known at home and abroad for its geothermal activity, and it features geysers – notably the Pohutu Geyser at Whakarewarewa – and hot mud pools".

"This thermal activity is sourced to the Rotorua caldera, in which the town lies"

We started out tour of Rotorua with a lakeside walk as recommended by our desightful server in the Tokaanu Bay restaurant the previous evening.

She rightly predicted that it would be a perfect place for a picnic and a walk for us not to mention the bird watching.

That afternoon we spotted the usual Mollymawk albatross, lots of terns and gulls, Paradise Shelducks and even a pair of juvenile Parasitic Jaegars, at least we think that's what they were.

We were very tempted by a cruise on the Lakeland Queen Paddle Steamer but it was surprisingly popular that day and actually quite crowded so we decided against it.

After all the news reports on the 8 New Zealanders who had come into contact with Covid on a cruise in America, we thought it best to avoid boat and ferry travel from that week onwards on our trip.

But the most difficult thing that we had to renounce which we really wanted to do that afternoon was a relatively low cost helicopter tour to Mount Tarawera.

Neither of us are great fans of helicopters at the best of times so we were certainly not prepared to cram into one with other tourists at the start of a world pandemic.

But both of us would have dearly loved to have seen the crater of Mount Tarawera, so for a while we did consider it.

"Mount Tarawera is a volcano on the North Island located 24 kilometres southeast of Rotorua, it consists of a series of rhyolitic lava domes that were fissured down the middle by an explosive basaltic eruption in 1886".

"This eruption was New Zealand's largest historical eruption in living memory and killed over 150 people".

Although the volcanic eruptions of the Taupo caldera were generally more violent and geographically more destructive, they did not cause human casualties as they occurred before New Zealand was populated.

Whereas "the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera's three peaks, blasting three distinct columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the sky, destroyed several villages within a 6 kilometre radius, and killed at least 153 people".

"Recent research using mathematical modelling of events during the later Rotomahana eruption phase, is consistent with eyewitness accounts; describing it resembling a pot boiling over".

"The Maori Ngati Rangitihi and Tuhourangi settlements around the Ariki arm of Lake Tarawera i.e. Moura, Koutu, Kokotaia, Piripai, Pukekiore and Otuapane: along with Tapahoro, Te Wairoa, Totarariki, and Waingongoro, were buried or destroyed".

"Although the official death toll was reported as 153, so many more were displaced".

"This was without doubt the deadliest eruption in New Zealand history".

"The survivors became refugees in their own country, for generations".

"The Māori village of Te Wairoa, has now become a tourist attraction called "the buried village of Te Wairoa", like a Southern Hemisphere Pompeii.

This was the first time on our three month voyage that we had to forego something that we really wanted to do for the sake of social distancing.

There would be many others over the course of our final few weeks in the Southern Hemisphere but we will always remember that helicopter tour to the crater of Mount Tarawera as the first and one of the most longed for tours that we were not able to participate in.

Rotorua Central

The Lakeland Queen paddle steamer on Lake Rotorua with Mollymawks, gulls and little black ducks or New Zealand scaups

Seagull on Late Rotorua

NZ Scaup or little black duck (photo courtesy of https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=little+black+ducks+NZ&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#imgrc=slJxZL5J8LOMzM)

Mollymawk albatross in Rotorua

Mollymawk and Paradise Shelducks in Rotorua

Paradise shelducks

Pretty Paradise Shelduck (photo courtesy of https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=black+NZ+ducks+with+white+heads&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#imgrc=miapRgh62ZbjjM)

The wonderful helicopter tour to Mount Tarawera that we did not go on due to social distancing

Maori home in the buried village of Te Wairoa (photo courtesy of https://www.go4travelblog.com/te-wairoa-buried-village/)

Te Pākira Marae and Wahiao at Whakarewarewa

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whakarewarewa

Our server at the Tokaanu Bay restaurant from the previous evening had recommended Whakarewarewa to us.

She explained that we would receive a traditional Maori welcome and then be treated to several Maori ceremonial dances followed by a tour of an extraordinary geo-thermal area that renders that site of very special interest to film and TV crews from all over the world.

She was not wrong, this is an extraordinary place and as most of what you see is outside, you can very easily keep your distance from other tourists.

"Whakarewarewa (reduced version of Te Whakarewarewatanga O Te Ope Taua A Wahiao, meaning 'the gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao', often abbreviated to 'Whaka' by locals), is a Rotorua semi-rural geothermal area in the Taupo Volcanic Zone of New Zealand's North Island".

"This was the site of the Māori fortress of Te Puia, first occupied around 1325, and known as an impenetrable stronghold which could never be taken in battle".

"Māori have lived here ever since, taking full advantage of the geothermal activity in the valley for their living and lifestyle needs'.

"Whakarewarewa is still populated by the descendants of the original Maori villagers today and we were told that day that local Māori have inhabited this area for centuries, devising ingenious ways to use the hot springs in daily life activities".

"On the afternoon we were there, Whakarewarewa's friendly guides, all of whom live on-site, were welcoming tourists to their home with a traditional ceremony which included heritage dances, songs and poems, they were also running tours where they led groups through the village describing how the surrounding geothermal pools were and still are used for bathing, weather prediction, and even cooking".

We attended the wonderful welcome ceremony but for social distancing purposes we opted to tour the geothermal site on our own.

The ceremonial welcome dances were amazing and the beautiful songs told the story of how many hundreds of years ago, two of the original founders of that community first met and fell in love.

I was very grateful indeed to one of the dancers who found my phone on the floor at the end of their performance and handed it into lost property immediately.

Thanks to her vigilance my moment of panic was short lived; so as soon as I had retrieved my phone from the lost property desk, we continued with our tour.

The geothermal area was was quite unbelievable.

It was like being on another planet.

"Whakarewarewa has some 500 pools, most of which are alkaline chloride hot springs, and at least 65 geyser vents, each with their own name".

"Seven geysers are currently active".

"Pohutu Geyser, meaning big splash or explosion, erupts approximately hourly to heights of up to 30 m (98 ft)."

"Many of the thermal features at Whakarewarewa had been adversely affected by Rotorua residents taking advantage of the underlying geothermal fluids of the city by drawing shallow wells (20–200 m deep) to extract hot water for both domestic and commercial heating".

"A bore closure programme in 1987–1988 resulted in 106 wells within 1.5 km of Pohutu Geyser being cemented shut, with another 120 wells outside the radius being shut due to a punitive royalty charging regime".

"There has subsequently been a pronounced recovery in the geysers and hot springs at Whakarewarewa."

Our geothermal tour of Whakarewarewa reminded us of a trip to Iceland in 2017.

The Reykjavik hotel we stayed in was proud of the fact that it extracted all its hot water for commercial heating purposes from its very own well as we understood everyone did in Iceland.

The Whakarewarewa 'other worldly' landscape was very similar to the 'lunar landscape' (as we described it then) in most of the Iceland we visited, in particular the areas surrounding the Blue Lagoon region of the country.

What is extraordinary about New Zealand, however, are the different types of landscape all co-existing happily side by side.

Not far from this icelandic-style geothermal site in Whakarewarewa you can see beautiful green rolling hills and glorious countryside on one side, alpine scenery on another and beautiful white, sandy beaches just a short drive away.

Since arriving in New Zealand just two weeks earlier, we had seen Fiordlands, rain forests, agricultural areas where wonderful vegetables and stone fruit was produced for local and export markets and vibrant, modern cities.

New Zealand really does have it all.

How such a relatively small country can have so much with seemingly perfect climatic conditions to boot, is extraordinary.

What we were not expecting to find in Whakarewarewa, a short walk from the geothermal site was its kiwi bird conservation area.

Included in our very reasonably priced combo ticket was a tour of the Kiwi enclosure where we managed to see two kiwis in a very authentic and spacious night woodland simulation environment.

Flash photography was strictly forbidden for obvious reasons but seeing these ancient flightless birds going about their business in their natural woodland environment was truly wonderful.

A trip to Whakarewarewa is definitely a must for anyone who is planning to visit New Zealand in the future.

It was one of the most surprising and unusual experiences of our entire trip and a perfect social distancing excursion if, indeed, this is something that people need to now consider when planning future holidays.

We are very grateful indeed to our lovely Tokaanu Bay server for recommending it to us.