International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 51 | Page 64

WONDERFUL

WA I M A N G U
Wo r d s : L y n n N i c h o l s o n

I

magine the quiet, early morning hours of June 10, 1886. Suddenly the
earth begins to tremble. Brilliant lightning storms fill the sky. Explosions
begin to rent the air, becoming increasingly louder and more powerful.
On that fateful morning, New Zealand’s Central North Island was rocked
by a series of violent earthquakes, climaxing in the cataclysmic eruption
of Mount Tarawera as it split itself in two, destroying the surrounding area,
burying four villages, killing more than one hundred and twenty people and
opening the earth along a 17 kilometre rift. Lake Rotomahana exploded to
twenty times its size, and the seven craters of Waimangu Volcanic Valley
were formed.

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