WANGANUI RIVER.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1377, 1 March 1912, Page 5

WANGANUI RIVER.

THE RHINE OF MAOBILAND. A. recent visitor writes as follows regarding a trip on the Wanganui River:— The Wnngnnui River is the most beautiful scenic river in New Zealand, and affords-a magnificent river-road into the heart of the North Idand. For two dnys tho traveller voyages down the river by launch and steamer until IVanganui js reached. A region cf singular enchantment: it is so unlike anything one sees in the outside world; and the traveller who has once run thrqugh tho watery canyons of the Wangamii never forgets the experience. The cruise down these fairy waterways, with the cool fragrant forests all around, the gorgeous shadowpictures in the water, the wonderful wild gardens of ferns on the banks, the murmur of the little waterfalls and the rush of the river in one's ears, is one of the most truly delightful iu this land- of a thousand lino tourist pilgrimages. The wonderful reflections are one of the delights of a fine weather trip on the Waliganui. The, leafy glories of the forest, overhanging sprays of wild flowers, the tall tree ferns, tho vivid crimson and green and gold of the mossy river walls, are all mirrored with an added lustre iu the deep waters. One spot of unforgetable beauty, is the Kirikiriroa reachjust below ft long rapid—where a bold cliff, called by the Maoris "Koinaki's Leap," jut.! out into the stream like a battleship's ram bow, with an olden MaoTi settlement on a wooded terrace opposite, and long curving hillside thickly covered wjth ponga tree ferns. The twenty-milo run from the mouth of the Tangarakau tributary to Pipiriki —the last portion of the day's run from Taumarunui—is the finest bit of. the whole river. Here the AVanganni flows through a deep and narrow defile between lofty walls of smooth and walor-polished papa rock—To Wahi-pari, "The Place of Cliffs." \Vo shoot down past gloomy little gorges, like deep knife-cuts, arched by trees; in the depths tinkle _ waterfalls. There arc deep cave-like openings where the black water swirls and eddies; and there are dark cliff-caves, in Maori legend the haunt of tnniwha and inaero, fabulous monsters of river and wilderness, and "wild men of the woods."

Very deep, very svjift, is tho river as it sweeps down through the dark canyon. Now and p.giun rocky shoals bar its course; it leaps then in a. turmoil of flying water. Through the whirl end spray of the rapids shoots the light launch like an nrrow in its flight, and dancing, through' tho waves, speeds into another smooth reach; and so rapid alternates with calm water until l'ipiriki is reached. Hero there is a large and comfortable house to stay for the travellers, and a large winter' garden recently inaugurated by HatTick and Co., Ltd,, who control the river .steamers. Here the tourist transfers to the steamer for Wangamii town. The Native population on the upper waters of the Wnsiganui is small. It is not until Pipiriki is passed that one sees linioli of Maori life. Then village after village (lrainga, in the Maori tongue) is seen, each set ou a green river terrace, embowered in groves of fruit and shade trees, and surrounded by plantations of potatoes, kumara, maize, tobacco, nnd clumps of cultivated flax. Low-eved dwellings and carved meeting houses, v;ith their decorated barge-board.s, fancifully fretworked and brightly painted, surround the central niarae, or village square; behind the .houses are highlegged patakas, or food-stores. Long ciiuoes, each hewn out of a single tree, nre drawn up on the banks or swing in tho current. The great number of canoes nn the river is, in fact, one of the remarkable features of the Wanganui; and tho sight of a canoe-load of Maori voyagers is a frequent and pretty picture. Tho trip can also bo made up stream from Wanginui.