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Published: August 25th 2006
Colorful crater
Wow!Look at the colors. Technicolor Waiotapu
If Whakarewarewa Thermal Village at Rotorua is like a black and white film then Waiotapu can be compared to the technicolor film. I think even God’s technology keeps on improving and She made Waiotapu after experimenting with Whakarewarewa.
And, what a classic it is!!
At Whakarewarewa, apart from the green of the vegetation, there are few colors other than black and white or shades of gray. The mud pools are gray, the Pohutu geyser is white and the water of only one pool has a bluish tinge.
Somehow, I suspect, that the job of making Waiotapu was given to a youthful and talented Goddess of a flamboyant nature and she was given a free hand. In her exuberance, she has used every color on the palette in painting this landscape.
She must have got the first prize in the “Rangoli” competition of the Goddesses for this entry. (The link below gives information about our traditions, that I myself did not know, but then I am a non-practicing Hindu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangoli
For more info. on the colorful Hindu festival Holi, do a Google search, and read from the different websites, because this information is
Self evident
The Devil's ink pots scattered over the Web.)
Have you ever seen the children in kindergarten that get their hands on the crayons for the first time? At the end of the ‘Drawing and Painting’ class, generally everything is colored, walls, floor, clothes, hands, noses and cheeks. Only the drawing paper might remain blank. It is a highly enjoyable experience except, maybe, for people who have to clean up after them. At Waiotapu, you get the same effect, only on a larger scale.
Waiotapu means Secred Water. “Wai” means water in Maori, and ‘tapu’ is derived from the Sanskrit word “tapa”(Holy Abstinence, Penance), which got changed into “Taboo” in the Polynesian languages. So, Waiotapu can be translated as “Taboo Water” (‘Tapojal’ in Indian languages), which also means “Sacred Water” reserved for God’s worship.
Maoris were smart. Just the name Waiotapu tells that the waters of the several pools in this geothermal area was not fit for drinking or bathing or other common household uses. It was ‘prohibited’ from common, mundane uses and reserved for higher ones.
The Maoris were smart. They had also discovered everything about New Zealand before the Europeans arrived on the scene and rediscovered everything.
Waiotapu
Blue Pool
The blue pool is colorful. The area is vast (18 sq. km./7 sq. miles) and is spread over the slopes of Rainbow Mountain (a very apt name), dotted here and there with hot springs and fumaroles. Tourists see only a part of it, but a most interesting one. They are given a map of the area at the reception and then allowed to walk along the boardwalk at their own free will and fall into the hot sulphur pools. It is the tourists’ responsibility NOT to fall in and ruin the pools.
The Devils’ Inkpots were bubbling, and I distinctly heard the Witches’ Chant :
Double, Double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn and cauldron bubble.”
http://www.artpromote.com/arts_literature/Witches_1.shtml
Shakespeare has given an excellent recipe of the Witch’s brew, though some of the ingredients are hard to come by. I mean, even supermarkets like Harrod’s or Safeways do not stock items like ‘Liver of a Blaspheming Jew’ or ‘Nose of Turk’ or ‘Lips of Tartar’, do they?
[Mr. Solomon from second floor is a Jew, though I do not know whether he blasphemes. Mr. Screwdriverwala from fifth floor is an Irani, which is almost as good as being a
Artist's Palette
The Artist's Palette, on which she has mixed some colors Turk. I do not know any Tartars, but maybe I can substitute ‘lips of Tartar’ with some Tartar sauce. The rest of the ingredients will be easily available in any Chinese grocery shop - I mused. However, I remembered my family’s strict warning to me - “No Substitutions”. I had substituted Masur dal for Urad dal in ‘Dahiwada’ once upon a time.]
Anyway, the Jew and the Irani were not ready to part with their liver and nose respectively, at least, not without a struggle. “Ideal Co-operative Housing Society” is a misnomer for our society.
However, the brew DID look like all the ingredients were put in it. After all, nothing is difficult for the Devil. Maybe their supermarkets stock these items.
The special geothermal features are given very graphic and meaningful names. Looks like the British were just as good at giving colorful place-names as the Maoris were. There are ‘Devil’s inkpots’, ‘Devil’s bath’, Rainbow crater, Primrose Terrace, Sulphur Cave, Opal Lake, Oyster Pool and the beautiful green Ngakoro Lake. (I am not able to guess what ‘koro’ might mean in Maori, but the ‘nga’ definitely comes from ‘Naga’ i.e. snake in Sanskrit. So the lake’s
The Oyster pool?
I am not sure it is Oyster Pool, but it is lovely name MAY mean “snake venom” in Maori. If so, then it couldn’t be surpassed for vivid description. The lake is poisonous enough and green enough for the popular conception of a snake’s venom, though very beautiful. Its tranquil surface and deceptively cool, green color almost tempt you to jump in and swim because you are hot and perspiring after the arduous climb when you arrive at the lake.)
Probably the only name, which shows a paucity of imagination, is ‘Bridal Veil Falls’. I mean, how many Bridal Veil Falls are there on the face of the earth? I myself have seen four, one at Yosemite, one in British Columbia, one in Blue Mountains of Australia and one here in Waiotapu, and I KNOW that there are at least a dozen more all over the world. I think, if I come across any more, I will feel like tearing that veil, and this is
not a veiled threat, mind you.
I hope our photos will do justice to the names like ‘Artist’s Palette’ and the Champagne Pool. The Artist’s Palette does look like, well, like an artist’s palette on which he has mixed some paints, red, yellow blue and green. There are Hot Pool and Cold Pool here, just like a Turkish bath. People, who want to slim down and dissolve their fat in a very short time, can try these pools. Dive in and you may come up as a skeleton. However, I am told that losing weight so speedily is not good for health.
The Champagne Pool is a large hot (74 deg C), Champagne-colored pool from which the carbon dioxide bubbles are bursting to give the effect of a smoking, effervescent, ‘carbonated’ drink like Alka Seltzer, or Ino. However, you should not drink this wonderful soda even if you are having indigestion, and the bowl that holds this wonderful drink has beautiful orange-red design at the edges.
The colors of the vegetation were unfamiliar. The moss on the trees was yellow instead of green and the lichen was red colored. We had a feeling that we were walking
Beautiful!!
Beautiful!! Isn't it? through an alien forest on an alien planet.
There used to be a ‘Pink Terrace’ and a ‘White Terrace’ in this thermal wonderland, which were supposed to be the ‘8th wonder of the modern world’, (Which were the other seven, I wonder.) but a jealous Goddess in the ‘Rangoli’ competition, who had not received any prize, destroyed those terraces.
The Lady Knox Geyser erupts exactly at 10:15 in the morning. This eruption is not
natural like the Old Faithful’s, but exactly at 10:15, they pour soap down the geyser to prompt the eruption, which may continue for an hour or so.
The discovery that the bubbling hot water spring (of about 20 meters in height) could be made to erupt by adding soap to the geyser, was first made by the prisoners when they were washing clothes. (The prisoners were inmates, no, outmates of an open air jail.)
I am sure those prisoners were paroled, pardoned and paid for the discovery.
Many other prisoners, who have made great discoveries like tunneling through the prison walls, making
The Primrose Terrace
I believe it is the Primrose Terrace knives out of tin spoons, making ropes out of cloth threads etc. have not written any papers and published them and so, the poor chaps, remain unrecognized.
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