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Red Crater from the upper Oturere Valley.
Photo NC.
The floor of this broad valley is filled
by an 8 km (5 miles) long, 400 m (1312') wide lava flow which originated
in Red Crater. Its upper part can be seen here fairly clearly: the
steep incurvated mass of lava in the middle of the picture, which
climbs back all the way towards the mouth of the crater, on the
upper right part of the mountain. On the valley floor the lava spreads
in a series of ridges, which from above look strikingly like the
surface patterns of glaciers (cf view from the summit of Ngaruhoe).
At floor level these patterns are not clearly visible, but the flow
has crystallised and eroded in an infinity of weird and spectacular
rock shapes. Because of this, as well as the magnificent views over
the whole eastern side of the Tongariro complex, dominated by Red
Crater and Ngaruhoe, the walk in the Oturere Valley is one of the
most rewarding of the whole Circuit.
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