Hot stream mysteriously turns green

Otumuheke Stream turned green for a while over the weekend. Photo / Waikato Regional Council.

 Taupō’s popular, thermally-heated Otumuheke Stream mysteriously turned green on Friday last week.

Waikato Regional Council is investigating the source of “an unidentified bright green fluid” leaching into the stream off Spa Road in Taupō.

The hot stream is a popular place for people to take a dip, just before it enters the Waikato River .

On a Facebook post on Saturday, the regional council said there was no way to stem the green fluid but it did appear to be lessening.

“Our staff are on site with iwi and Taupō District Council. We are looking into the possibility it might be a tracer dye, with samples of the fluid collected for analysis.”

Tracer dyes are usually non-toxic.

It was expected to take several days for the results to be available, and the regional council was urging caution by water users and swimmers.

Anyone who might know the source of the fluid is asked to contact the regional council’s incident response team on 0800 800 401.