AT ARIKIKAPAKAP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 411, 21 December 1932, Page 4

AT ARIKIKAPAKAP

MONSTROUS MUD SPOTjTn UP LIKE MESSINl/ MINE iROAR LIKE HEAVY (jjjv Coming into life with a t0, one of the Queen Elizabeth's fi? inch guns and throwing up / mud like the explosion of a t mine a new mud geyser cam/ ly into operation at Arikikat Reserve yesterday. •' It is an awesome spectacle, ImagiWe a seething mine-cratp sticks and branches instead o{ boards and cast-off equipmeEi boiling mud instead 0f iCy , heaving, bubbling and groaning all the time gouts of mud anj ojj boiling steam are flung y air. And to make the simile evei close, all the trees alongside are ered, not with the blast of but with the stifling breath of/ fumes and the suffocatiori'of | mud cast forth by the pit-benej The new geyser has been f0i time an ordihary porridge m is ordinary where there are saj but some twelve months ago p signs of new activity, vvhjchl i» gradually died away. YesSt however, it came to Ihe -with j geance and with half-an-hour'i liminary grumbling, blew out,' was only one person presant t time and he had a narrow i from the gouts of boiling mudwere flung all over the pyesent past the pot-. High tip in tte there are signs of the first i which milst have been fiully se feetf high. Last evening a "Morning'Po# presentative went out with | coverer and after waiting ott hour during which time the g several tim'es gave symptou blowing they were rewarded v magnificent shot. The boiling mud rose and £ •gradually the height rose in tfee until it culminated in a roart heavy gun hattery. Huge quantities of boiling were flung high into the air and ter-ed among the trees and grg around like shrapnel in an air Clouds of 'Scalding steam ; through which came ever and the plunks of mud striking up a; the herbage with a dull thud. Then gradually the noisa died; the mud streamed back intoi tfe and all was still. Strange ea among the trees, came the shrills call of th'e shining cuckoo aE; "Messine" mud geyser was qufe more for 1£ hours. It must be pointed out tk new geyser is distinctly dangerc: should not in any circumstanj approached without proper gci: nor should anyone go too close: there is any chance of a burr, the mud is thrown over a ra£ fully a chain. It is however, ara ful sight and undoubtedly profi most unique attraction in the tk region.