{"id":1307,"date":"2026-02-28T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjs.sputs.com\/wordpress\/?p=1307"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:24:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:24:53","slug":"2026-day-37-colville-to-whakapapa-tongariro-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sjs.sputs.com\/wordpress\/2026\/02\/28\/2026-day-37-colville-to-whakapapa-tongariro-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Day 37 Colville to Whakapapa\/Tongariro National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

February 28, 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Map: Day 37<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This was a big drive day since it was over 5 hours to the Whakapapa Village in Tongariro National Park, where we would be staying for the next two nights. We got up early and were on the road by 7:30 AM. We stopped at the bakery in Thames to buy some meat pies for brunch, and then we drove to the town of Te Aroha to see Mokena Geyser. It was a CO2 cold water geyser that we had previously seen erupt in 2019. When we first arrived, Heinrich thought it was dead since there was no sign of water around the vent enclosure, no steam, and it was very quiet. But then I read some recent reports online that it had been erupting about every 40 minutes, so we decided to wait. That turned out to be the correct decision since we were rewarded with an eruption about 25 minutes later. We then stayed around to see a second eruption for a closed interval of about 45 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this geyser and other geothermal activity seen on this trip, I am not going to write much since Heinrich has already provided a lot of details on his web page. So I will provide a link to Heinrich's observations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Link to Heinrich's page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mokena Geyser structure<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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