ROTORUA | | | | | |

Lady Knox Geyser spouts off punctually at 10.15 am and gushes for about an hour. Magic? No, it's actually blocked up with some rags so the pressure builds up. When a bag of soap powder is poured in by a staff to decrease the surface viscosity, off it goes. This scientific principle of the relation of soap powder to surface viscosity of geysers was discovered by some early Europeans who thought it would be a great idea to use the hot water in the ground to wash their clothes.