The Eruption Of Mount Tarawera

On June 10th 1886 something explosive, infernal and deadly blew its top just out of Rotorua it was Mount  Tarawera, it was the eruption that blew a city apart. The eruption lasted six hours. Several villages were destroyed along with the most famous silica hot springs in the world the Pink and White Terraces. Which only have just been found today. 120 people died and nearly all were Maori. Eleven days before the eruption tourists on a guided tour boat tourists spotted a phantom war canoe on lake Tarawera. Tribal elders believed it was a waka wairua (spirit canoe)-an omen of doom. In the early hours of June 10th people woke up to earthquakes, lightning, fountains of molten rock and ash and smoke shooting into the sky as high as 10 km's. People as far away as Blenhiem heard the eruption. Many thought it was a attacks from a Russian warship that had recently visited Wellington. This eruption would sure shake New Zealand for years to come. 7