Quest for the Pink and White Terraces

The Expedition to Recover New Zealand's Eighth Wonder of the World

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Quest for the Pink and White Terraces Reviews

A 'can't put down' read. Not to be missed.

I bought this book because I live in Rotorua and have an interest in geology. I also followed Cornel du Rhonde's activities on Lake Rotomahana 2012. I thought it would be over my head but was wrong. It was very readible and I couldn't put it down. It is a very thoroughly researched book and only occasionally did I flick on. Being in ebook form meant the maps were almost impossible to read but what I did work out was rewarding. I admire Rex's habit of researching everything he wasn't sure about, so that it wasn't all geology. I recommend this for anybody who is curious about our wonderful surroundings here in the Rotorua and surroundings. If a hard cover book becomes available I'll buy it to put on my coffee table and/or lend to friends.

Letters to the Editor NZ Herald 8/5/2016

Dear Sir,

Last week’s release of a substantial new book on the Pink and White Terraces* will hopefully put speculation about their fate back on track. The official report after the 1886 Tarawera eruption supposed that the fabled terraces had been blown to smithereens. In 2011 GNS Sciences claimed to have discovered the terraces in the depths of Lake Rotomahana.

But as some of us soon pointed out, whatever they found 60 metres below the surface cannot possibly be the terraces which were located entirely above the lake. Even though the post-eruption lake level is about 10 metres higher than the original, the 50 metre discrepancy cannot be explained away.

Rex Bunn now sets forward a credible theory based on detailed analysis of the field notes of Austrian geologist Dr. von Hochstetterwho surveyed the area 27 years before the eruption, Assuming them to be accurate, Hochstetter’s measurements place the terraces on dry land slightly west of the enormous Rotomahana crater, now filled by the lake. So the terraces may still be intact, albeit buried under 10-15 metres of volcanic mud and debris.

Hopefully some drill cores from the sites suggested by Mr. Bunn will soon reveal the truth.

Yours faithfully,

(name on file)

colegrove

New Zealand

In The Press

Author Bio

Rex Bunn is a polymath, author and inventor with several patents. The leading USA journal 'Motorcycle Consumer News' describes him as "the world's foremost authority on crankcase breathing."

My latest research papers report the rediscovery of the original locations of the Pink, Black and White Terraces viz

With my thirteenth research paper published in July 2022, I'm now the most published, living specialist on the Pink, Black and White Terraces. In 2021, I reported research findings to a select committee.
In 2019, I completed writing up the 2014 Pink and White Terraces [PAWTL] and 2017-2018 PAWTL2 projects: which fixed the locations of this long lost "eighth wonder of the world" in New Zealand. Against all reports prior to April 30, 2016, all three of the Pink, Black and White Terrace locations are shown by the 'Hochstetter Survey' to lie on land and therefore might have survived the 1886 Mt Tarawera eruption. "Quest for the Pink and White Terraces" the ebook published on April 30, 2016 (Dr Hochstetter's birthday), covers the PAWTL Project research phase of 2014. A two-volume second edition published in 2020. The 2017-2018 PAWTL2 Project was followed by further iterations of Hochstetter's survey, published in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, I published review papers examining and critiquing research claims by an international marine team and by local geoscience researchers. These papers may be found in the journal "Frontiers in Earth Science Volcanology" February, 2020 and in "Surveying+Spatial", issue 102, June 2020. The conclusion is that Hochstetter's Survey remains the only source of primary location coordinates for the three Terraces. A summary of the Surveying+Spatial review is below:

New Pink and White Terraces review reconciles conflicting research
This week in Surveying+Spatial journal; conflicting survey research of the Pink and White Terraces by an international oceanographic team and by local researchers is reviewed and reconciled.
After replicating the marine team survey mapping, and examining photo-interpretation, sonar and georeferencing; the reconciliation uncovered mistakes. These help explain differences between the two surveys.

The reconciliation integrated both approaches to make striking new findings about the Pink and White Terraces. It locates pre-eruption features, thought lost but now seen to have likely survived the 1886 Tarawera eruption.
Surveying+Spatial is the professional journal of Survey and Spatial New Zealand (formerly New Zealand Institute of Surveyors).

Surveying+Spatial article conclusions:
The north-south lake axis analysis offers a Pareto optimal solution, incorporating Keam and marine team geoscience, with Hochstetter’s survey location of the Pink and White Terraces.
Hochstetter’s remains the only primary, pre-eruption survey evidence of the Pink, Black and White Terrace locations.
The survival of the northern Steaming Ranges and Rangipakaru; increase the likelihood the White Terrace location may also survive.

Article: Reconciling New and Old Surveys of the Pink and White Terraces
Journal: Surveying+Spatial
Edition: Issue 102, June 2020, published July 16, 2020, pp. 30-36.
URL: https://www.surveyspatialnz.org/Article?Action=View&Article_id=141

The 2015 work 'Sons of Asclepius', is the biography of an extraordinary Australian intellectual and surgeon Dr Anthony (Tony) Parker [1920-1973]. After a stellar beginning, life in his middle years was neither as he wished it, nor expected. He was unfairly dismissed from his hospital post of sixteen years and never told the grounds. He died aged fifty-two, after the dismissal from a heart attack. In my view as his biographer, his death was precipitated by the cruel nature and distress of the dismissal. His final epistle to his protege reveals a man suffering unbearable distress with grace, and issuing wise, Socratic counsel in the last few weeks of his life.

The 2014 work 'The King's Crew' is the 460 page illustrated Unit History of No. 14 Squadron (City of Gisborne) Air Training Corps (ATC), with 351 charts, tables and illustrations. This is one of the few ATC unit histories written since the ATC was founded in WWII, and probably the most comprehensive. Uniquely, the ebook has a companion multimedia film "King's Crew". The film edition is available as a download in ".pptx" file format. Details of a joint book+film package purchase are available from the author.

'Motorcycle Blow-by: A Shower of Sparks' is the abridged edition of the 2013 magnum opus 'Motorcycle Crankcase Ventilation'. The abridged edition meets rider needs for a simpler guide to understanding oil leaks and other signs of poor crankcase ventilation, and to the fitting of crankcase breathers to fix the problems.

His longer works include:-

* Quest for the Pink and White Terraces, Volumes I and II paperback (2020)
* Quest for the Pink and White Terraces ebook (2016)
* Sons of Asclepius (2015)
* The King's Crew book (2014)
* Motorcycle Blow-By: A Shower of Sparks, abridged e-dition (2013)
* Classic Motorcycling, the revised, enlarged e-dition (2013)
* Motorcycle Crankcase Ventilation (2013)
* Kings Crew, film production (2012)
* Classic Motorcycling- A Guide for the 21st Century (2007)
* Economic Change and the Health of the Community (1978)

His recent published papers on the Terraces are:-

Bunn, A. R. (2016) Quest for the Pink and White Terraces: The Expedition to Recover New Zealand’s Eighth Wonder of the World, A. R. Bunn, Kindle Edition, 782p.

Bunn, A. R. (2016a) Quest for the Pink and White Terraces, rushes, 7.30-8.30, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9YHJjPTrX8, uploaded 6/5/2016.

Bunn, A. R. and Nolden, S. (2016) “Te Tarata and Te Otukapuarangi: Reverse engineering Hochstetter’s Lake Rotomahana Survey to map the Pink and White Terrace locations” The Journal of New Zealand Studies, NS23, 37-53.

Bunn, A. R. (2017) Reconstructing Rotomahana, lecture to the Royal Society of New Zealand, Rotorua, 11/4/2017.

Bunn, A. R. (2017a) Reconstructing Rotomahana, lecture to GNS Science, Taupo, 6/9/2017.

Bunn, A. R. (2017b) “Rediscovering Te Tuhi’s Spring and Black Terrace Crater v1.5”, Unpublished PAWTL2 Report, Rotorua, 2/11/2017.

Bunn, A. R. (2017c) “Research Comparison- Bunn & Nolden with de Ronde et al, Notes on Reviewer 2 requirement for a new section on de Ronde et al 2016 assertion”, Confidential supplement to the Royal Society of New Zealand, 11/6/2017, 1-38.

Bunn, A. R. and Nolden, S. (2018) “Forensic cartography with Hochstetter’s 1859 Pink and White Terraces survey: Te Otukapuarangi and Te Tarata” Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 48, 39-56.

Bunn, A. R., Davies, N. and Stewart, D. (2018) “Dr Hochstetter’s Lost Survey” Surveying+Spatial, 94, 5-13.

Bunn A. R. (2018) “Pink and White Terraces final location 'discovered'”, Nine to Noon, RadioNZ, 20/3/2018, gallery 5.

Bunn A. R. (2018a) “Hochstetter’s Survey- Iteration 5”, lecture to PAWTL2 and Tūhourangi, Rotorua, 14/3/2018.

Bunn, Rex. (2019a) Photographic embellishment and fakery at the Pink and White Terraces. New Zealand Legacy, Vol. 31.1, pp 5-13, June).

Bunn, A. R. (2019b) “Hochstetter’s Survey of the Pink and White Terraces: The Final Iteration” Surveying+Spatial, 99, 30-35.

Bunn, A. R. (2020) “Commentary: Locating Relict Sinter Terrace Sites at Lake Rotomahana, New Zealand, With Ferdinand von Hochstetter's Legacy Cartography, Historic Maps, and LIDAR”, Frontiers in Earth Science, doi: 10.3389/feart.2020.00068.

Bunn A. R. (2020) Quest for the Pink and White Terraces, second edition, Vols. I and II, A. R. Bunn.

Bunn A. R. (2020) Reconciling New and Old Surveys of the Pink and White Terraces, Surveying+Spatial, 102, 30-36.

Bunn, A. R. (2021) Submissions to the Māori Affairs Committee, New Zealand House of Representatives, on the Ngāti Rangitihi Claims Settlement Bill, 2021. Available from: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/submissions-and-advice/current?criteria.Keyword=bunn&criteria.Author=M%C4%81ori+Affairs+Committee&criteria.Timeframe=&criteria.DateFrom=2020-11-24&criteria.DateTo=&parliamentStartDate=2020-11-24&parliamentEndDate=&criteria.DocumentStatus=

Bunn, R. (2022a). The first evidence-based altimetry for locating the lost Eighth Wonder of the World: the Pink, Black and White Terraces. Academia Letters, Article 5204. doi.org/10.20935/AL5204
Bunn, R. (2022b) The Eighth Wonder of the World in New Zealand─ the third, Black Terrace. EarthArXiv, DOI: 10.31223/X51D17

Bunn, R.(2022c) Reconstructing Rotomahana Basin topography to disclose the lost White Terraces, New Zealand’s Eighth Wonder of the World. https://eartharxiv.org/repository/dashboard/3441/

Bunn, A. (2022d) Coandă and Venturi Effects at the Eighth Wonder of the World─ the White Terrace. Authorea. October 22, 2022.
DOI: 10.1002/essoar.10511924.3

Bunn, A. (2022e) Flames at the Pink and White Terraces: the Cold Case of Edwin Bainbridge. Authorea. November 04, 2022.
DOI: 10.1002/essoar.10512777.1

Bunn, A. R. and Nolden, S. (2022) Ferdinand von Hochstetter’s New Zealand survey data
─locating the Pink and White Terraces, [Manuscript submitted for publication].