Visitors flock to see volcanic phenomenon that threatens to engulf property in Rotorua

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

When Rotorua resident Susan Gedye was awoken at 2am by “a lot of shaking and jolting” she thought it was an earthquake.

But then she headed downstairs at her suburban home and saw that her kitchen windows had steamed up and a large mud geyser had appeared in her garden.

Rotorua is known as a tourist hotspot for good reason. It is home to geothermal mud pools which bubble up and shoot geysers high into the air, giving parts of the town a sulphurous smell.

Gedye said when morning dawned on Wednesday, the mud geyser had grown even bigger.

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“So that was kind of spectacular but different and a little bit scary,” she told Radio New Zealand.

The volcanic activity resulted in a large crater on her front lawn with the thermal pool throwing boiling mud 10m into the air.

Authorities also found a sinkhole under Gedye’s kitchen meaning her family, including two children, have been forced to move out.

The next day the thermal pool, situated on a bank, had again grown with her double garage next in the firing line.

“It’s kind of a matter of time before that will probably end up down the bank,” Gedye said.

Power has also been cut off and gas bottles on the property have been removed.

Brad Scott, a volcanologist at the GNS national research institute, told media at the site on Friday that he had seen people throwing stones into the mud pool.

“That’s human nature, you put fences up and people will climb over it to have a look.

“It’s one of the things we’ve noticed over the years with geothermal features, if there’s a spare stone around someone will pick it up and throw it in,” he said.

Peter Brownbridge, a geothermal inspector for the local council, said the pool was produced by heat escaping through a fault line which crossed under the town.

Gedye said that steam had erupted from the same bank about four times over the past 20 years.

“But it was just steam that would come out of the bank and it would last for a few days or week or something and then just stop.

“That’s the thing, it could stop in a minute, tomorrow or it could last two weeks, but the longer it carries on the worse the damage gets. The house won’t be liveable again.”



