Flying low! - Volcanic Air Safari

---

Well you have to do something different on holiday! Some come to New Zealand to Bungy Jump but for me I could not eventually resist the lure of a trip in an Otter Seaplane from Lake Rotorua to view Mount Tarawera and the surrounding thermal area.

This was a late afternoon, spur of the moment trip. We took off from Lake Rotorua just outside our hotel and flew SW over the Crater Lake District (rather like ours back home but volcanic in origin) towards the summit of Mt Tarawera. Enroute you could see along the whole line of the volcanic area out to the currently active White Island in the distance over which a plume of stream could be seen. On reaching Tarawera the explosion craters of the 1886 eruption could be seen and we flew low over and around a few times before returning over the steaming cliffs and hot lakes of the Waimangu Volcanic Valley, the geysers of Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve and Rotorua City.

As a geologist, this for me was even more of an adrenalin rush that a bungy jump....and I got keep my lunch down!

---

Photos

Our hotel
During takeoff

Mount Tarawera
The crater rift formed by the 1886 eruption

View to White Island
Just visible on horizon

Rotorua Thermal Region
The aerial view of my walk this morning