That is the name of the living village that we visited in Roratonga.
They have some recreations of the buildings that were used traditionally.
They also have a mixture of traditional buildings, like this meeting house. But it is also used today for special events.
The jade is a special material that is used to confer status. The bulging eyes and exposed tongue is to scare away the evil spirits.
This village in the area of Roratonga is built on a thermal hot spot.
They have to vent different areas (like the cemetary) to prevent the ground from shifting.
In the lakes there are a few dried up vents with some sulphur deposits around them.
The lake steams and not just in the the morning.
It is a little bit more prominent in the morning though.
Lots of things live by the lake, including several spiders that make they very dense webs.
There are several mud pools, this was the larger of the two. The mud is constantly bubbling.
As long as it doesn’t dry out it stays pretty flat.
And only thin droplets form.
Other parts of the area have much warmer water that have had years of minerals deposits laid down along their path. This creates the bright patterns.
Some of the hot water is directed to these pools which are used by the people that live in the village for bathing. It is around 55-60C and slightly alkaline so it feels oily after exposure.
Another pool is around 85-90C and constantly boils. This is where they would remove hair from animals to prepare skins.
We were lucky enough to see the geysers in action. Although most of the time we stopped by they were going off so perhaps there was more rain than usual which filled them up. The one of the left would spray twice as high as the on the right, but the one of the right was more constant.
