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The Pink Terraces, or Otukapuarangi ("fountain of the clouded sky") in Māori, and the White Terraces, also known as Te Tarata ("the tattooed rock"), were natural wonders of New Zealand. They were thought to have been completely destroyed by the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera.

The Terraces were formed by geothermally heated water containing large amounts of silicic acid and sodium chloride from two large geysers. These geysers were part of a group of 40 geysers in the nearby area.

The Pink and the White Terraces were 800 metres apart. The White Terraces were at the north end of Lake Rotomahana and faced away from the lake at the entrance to the Kaiwaka stream. They descended to the lake edge 40 metres below. The extra sunlight they received from facing north gave them a more bleached or white appearance. The Pink Terraces were positioned about two thirds of the way down the lake sheltered from the harsh sun on the western shores, facing south-east. Their pink appearance (near the colour of a rainbow trout) was largely due to less sunlight reaching them and therefore less bleaching.

Formation
The foundations for both terraces were formed from alternate layers of previous volcanic fallout over a long period of time. The volcanic debris layers, alternating between rhyolitic and sedimentary stone, formed the base for precipitation of silica. The precipitation formed many pools and steps over time. Precipitation occurred by two methods. The ascending foundation over time formed a lip which would trap the descending flow and become level again. This process formed attractive swimming places, both for the shape and for the warm water. When the thermal layers sloped in the other direction away from the geyser, then silica steps formed on the surface. Both types of formation grew as silica-laden water cascaded over them, and the water also enhanced the spectacle. Geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter wrote after his visit in 1860 that "doubtless thousands of years were required" for their formation.

The White Terraces were the larger formation, covering 3 hectares and descending over approximately 50 layers and a drop in height of 40 metres. The Pink Terraces descended 30 metres over a distance of 75 metres. The converging Pink Terraces started at the top with a width of 75–100 metres and the bottom layers were approximately 27 metres wide. The Pink Terraces were where people preferred to bathe due to the more suitable pools.

History before eruption
One of the first Europeans to visit Rotomahana was Ernst Dieffenbach. He briefly visited Rotomahana and the terraces while on a survey for the New Zealand Company in early June 1841. The description of his visit in his book "Travels in New Zealand" inspired an interest in the Pink and White Terraces by the outside world.

The terraces were New Zealand's most famous tourist attraction, sometimes referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. New Zealand was still relatively inaccessible and passage took several months by ship. The journey from Auckland was typically by steamer to Tauranga, the bridle track to Ohinemutu on Lake Rotorua, by coach to Te Wairoa (the home of the missionary the Reverend Seymour Mills Spencer), by canoe across lake Tarawera, and then on foot over the hill to the swampy shores of Lake Rotomahana and the terraces.

Those that made the journey to the terraces were most frequently well to do overseas tourists or officers from the British forces in New Zealand. The list of notible tourists included Sir George Grey in 1849, Alfred Duke of Edinburgh in 1869, and victorian novelist Anthony Trollope in 1874.

28–30 April 1859
Ferdinand von Hochstetter carried out a geographic and geological survey of Rotomahana Lake and area at the request of the New Zealand Government. His Geographic and Geological survey was prepared in just three days on the lake but gave enough data to form the first map of the area.

This map, although not favoured by early scholars, has proven to be more accurate than several later attempts, although, as with other maps of the lake, the height above sea level was significantly incorrect in many locations. The relevant heights between lake levels and mountain peaks were in proportion, but varied as distance between reference points increased. Hochstetter was aware of this problem with using an aneroid device, and he advised several times in his original book Geology of New Zealand that the heights above sea level that he quoted were only as far he could measure due to variation in barometric preasures.

Hochstetter's studies and reports on terrace structuring in the Waipa and Rotorua areas reveal how the Terraces were formed, and he also made comments on the commercial possibilities of Rotomahana.

1872-1873
Stephenson Percy Smith gave the impression that the mountain top was rough but showed no sign of volcanic vents in 1873 when he reported on his findings.

March 1881
Dr. G. Seelhorst climbed Wahanga dome and the northern end of Ruawhai dome in search of a presumed falling star followed by reports of glowing and smoke from an area behind Wahanga. This ties in with reports of the first explosion at about 2:15 in the morning of the 10th June 1886, and lends credibility to the claim that Wahanga erupted first as suggested by Alfred Warbrick. Alfred Warbrick viewed the same event at the same time from the top of the adjacent hills.

1880 to 1886
Sophia Hinerangi, sometimes known as Te Paea (Tepaea), became recognised as the principal tourist guide of the Pink and White Terraces and guided the tourists in the whale boats from Te Wairoa to Te Ariki near Lake Rotomahana. Sophia took over as principal guide from the older Kate Middlemass in the early 1880s. Both guides are well documented for their involvement in guiding tourists to the Terraces. Kate Middlemass was instrumental in guiding Seelhorst to the alleged fallen star.Sophia Hinerangi was also the last guide to take tourists to the Terraces before the eruption. Sophia observed the pre eruption violence in the thermal wonderland and the disturbances to Lake Tarawera water levels days before the eruption.

Alfred Patchet Warbrick, a boat builder at Te Wairoa, witnessed the eruption of Mount Tarawera from Maunga Makatiti to the north of Lake Tarawera. Warbrick soon had whale boats on lake Tarawera investigating the new landscape, in time becoming a significant tourist guide to the post eruption attractions. Warbrick never accepted that the Pink and White Terraces had been totally destroyed.

1884
In 1884 a surveyor named Charles Clayton was surveying for work in the Kawerau area and described the top of Wahanga dome as volcanic with several depressions, one being approximately 200 feet deep. This is proven true by recent semifluid magma flows consolidating on top of older scoria in the same area. Stephenson Percy Smith was involved in a pre-eruption survey of Mount Tarawera which was never finalised.

Later revelations were to prove that both were correct although Clayton's report showed that Smith had not investigated the top of Wahanga to the same degree as Clayton. It is known that there were caves on the south west edge of Wahanga and that the symmetry of the Wahanga peak was upset by the 1886 rift.

Destruction
On 9–10 June 1886 Mount Tarawera erupted. The eruption spread from west of Wahanga dome, five kilometres to the north, down to Lake Rotomahana. The volcano belched out hot mud, red hot boulders and immense clouds of black ash from a 17-kilometre rift that crossed the mountain, passed through the lake, and extended beyond into the Waimangu valley.

After the eruption, a crater over 100 metres deep encompassed the former site of the terraces. After some years this filled with water to form a new Lake Rotomahana, 30 metres higher and much larger than the old lake.

Rediscovery
The terraces were long thought to have been destroyed around 3 a.m. on 10 June 1886 during the eruption. However, a team including researchers from GNS Science, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Waikato University were mapping the lake floor when they discovered part of the Pink Terraces in February 2011. The lowest two tiers of the terraces were found in their original place at 60 m deep (too deep for easy scuba diving ). A part of the White Terraces was rediscovered in June 2011. The announcement of the rediscovery of the White Terraces coincided with the 125th Anniversary of the eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886. It is thought that the rest of the terraces may be buried in sediment rather than having been destroyed.

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