Rotorua mud pool: The mud is not spurting but is it okay to sit in it?

The mud pool which spurted open in the garden of a family home last month has gone quiet, but it is still recommended people keep their distance.

Rotorua Lakes Council geothermal and regulatory inspector Peter Brownbridge said while recent rain had quenched the activity, steam had begun to appear yesterday. "This could be an indication of further activity to come," he said.

Susan Gedye, who lived at the house with her family including a 12-year-old and 17-month-old, woke up when the mud pool formed on June 25 and described the moment as feeling like a "big earthquake".

In the days following the ground continued to collapse around the mud pool and the shed on the property was taken down out of fears of it falling in.

Brownbridge said the mud pool was being monitored daily and there had been some slippage at the northern end of the hole.

What would happen to the mud pool would ultimately be up to the property owner in the long-run, he said.

He said the house was unlikely to be able to be lived in any time soon but the properties around it were still unaffected.

GNS volcanologist Brad Scott said, just as he predicted, the mud pool had quietened down less than a month after it suddenly opened.

Scott had not been at the Meade St site for 10 days as the geothermal area had gone quiet.

"There was still steam and heat but it certainly wasn't exploding mud and as active as I had seen it in the previous couple of weeks," Scott said.

Scott said while the likelihood of the hole getting bigger was the "most unlikely scenario," it was always a possibility.

Scott predicted the mud pool would remain quiet for about a year or two until the next cycle of geothermal activity began.

But although the pool had calmed down, it was not safe for people to climb in and Scott said the barricades around the site emphasised this.

Gedye was unable to be reached for comment but previously told the Rotorua Daily Post she and her family had moved in with her father.