Friday, October 10, 2008

Hell's Gate




"Where are we going?"   Maddie asked mom.  "Hell" she said.  "Where is Hell?" I asked but she did not answer.  When we got there I knew right away because of the smell.  I could recognize that smell from anywhere!  Rotten Eggs!  Yuck!!!  (I plugged my nose right away!)  We walked up to the front desk.  If you don't know where we were, we were at the boiling mud pools.
Hells Gate geothermal reserve was formed about 10,000 years ago as a series of geothermal eruptions when an ancient lake drained to form lakes Rotoiti and Rotorua.  With the water gone steam, gas and hot fluids came to the surface.  Hell's Gate is unique because the heat source is only 1.5 km below the surface rather than 10+km of most geothermal spots.
I looked at some mud pools and I was hot I wanted to take off my jacket, but I would have to unplug my nose! I carefully took off my jacket, I stared at the pools. They were hot, boiling and had lots of steam coming up from them.  Next we came to the Mud Volcano.  My mom tried to lift up her arm because she could not see what she was taking a picture of but she was not tall enough so she handed the camera to me.  I took it from my mom and my dad lifted me up.  I got some pretty good pictures of inside the Mud Volcano but I was still a bit hot!  Bubble, Bubble, Bubble!!!  It was actually making a loud kind of sound when the Mud Volcano was bubbling!  
I can't believe people actually pay money to take spa baths in this mud!
It sure does smell but it actually is worth the money to go to Hell's Gate!
-Elena

1 comment:

  1. Thanks, Elena. You described that very well. The pictures were great. Now that it's getting cold in Michigan, a warm mud bath doesn't sound so bad!

    ReplyDelete