Lady Knox Geyser, Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, New Zealand

The Lady Knox Geyser is a tourist affair (a bit like Pohutu) with visitors waiting for its daily eruption scheduled promptly at 10.15am. When I arrive a number of people are seated on concrete seats waiting eagerly with cameras poised for the sudden eruption.

Unexpectedly a park guide walks on with a bar of organic soap and places it inside the geyser to 'encourage' it although he says it would erupt naturally left to its own devices but to its own timetable. A couple of minutes later the geyser starts foaming until it finally spurts several metres into the air. Such anticipation can only lead to an anti-climax...