JOURNAL

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 59, 27 March 1851, Page 3

JOURNAL

Of an Expedition Overland from Auckland to Taranaki, by way of Rotorua, Taupo, and the West Coast, undertaken, in the Summer of 1849—50, by His Excellency the Gover-nor-in-Chief of New Zealand. [Continued fr.im our last ) Thursday, 27th Decern ber.— We walked round the pa this morning, and found a great number of very line ancient carvings in the shape of gateways posts of houses, &c, &c. We then went auiong-l the boiling sptitigs, of which theie are immense numbers close to the pa. They are like those at Tikilere, except that tliey contain vt ry li'.tle sulphur, and the water in most of them i- much clearer; some ar\ however, nothing but cauldrons of boiling mud. The ground around these cauldrons is very dangeiuiis to walk on without a guide, as in most places it is nothing but a tnin crust, under which is a tremendous depth of mud nnd water generally of ateniperatute far above boiling heat. The natives conk all their victuals in llic-e springs, using fire only for lighting their pipes. In pursuance of the priest's kind invitation we breakfasted with him this morning, and a most excellent breakfast he gave us, of course in the French style. Afterwards we inspected his chapel, which is, as usual, Maori built, but very neatly fitted up. The holy water is contained in little green cups of wood, beautifully carved by the natives ; and the pictures, fresh bouquets, &c, on 'he aliar add greatly to the a| pearauce of neatness and elegance which is observable in every pari of the building. We ihen gave ordets to prepare for a start, and while the preparations were going on. the Governor and I took the advantage of Mr. Rene's sitting-room, which he very kindly placed at our disposal, to write some letters to Auckland. We started about noon, still accompanied by uur friend Mr. Chapman, and escorted by the priest; the latter led the Governor away to some hot springs, about three miles from Ohiueimitu, and half that distance out of our direct road, which obliged us to halt, and wait about three-quarters of an hour for his Excellency to come up. At length he arrived alone, having taken leave of Pere Rene at the hot springs, and we started en route for larawera. We all much regretted not having accompanied the Governor to the springs. He described them as being beautiful jets of boiling water, which rose sometimes to the height of twenty-live or thiity feet, and the ground a 1 around covered with an incrustation of lime depos ted by the water, which his Excellency described as being very curious and beautiful. Our ro.d towards Tarawera ied us for about five miles along the bottom of a deep valley, which we found excessively hot, as there is not a tree or a bush by the roadside which might have sheltered us, neither was there a breath of wind, so that we were nearly stewed. At length we reached the beautiful little lake of Otcareka just at a place where there is a spring of deliciously cool water, wherewith we all refreshed ourselves, and then proceeded to cross the lake in canoes. The lake is really an extremely pretty sight, the shores being ofty and woo.led (with the exception of a valley at each end, where the roads run), a peninsula, on which stands the pa called Taumaihi, juts out into the centre of the lake. The waters are beautifully clear, and very deep. There is no apparent outlet to 'this lake ; its vent consists of an underground stream, which is hidden for about half a mile, and then makes its appearance, looking like a fountain of fresh water, gushing through a heap of rocks and square stones of a basaltic formation, whence it makes its way in a small stream to Parawera, the level of which is about sixty feet lower than that of Okareka, and into which the water falls down a declivity of twenty feet, forming a beautiful cascade, surrounded and overshadowed by a clump of karaka nnd uther evergreen trees." A walk of about three quarters of a mile brought us to this point, but we caught sight of the lake from the summit of a slight declivity, whilst we were yet nearly one hundred *q<l fifty yards 'it. The view from this pbint i» really uagnifioent. The lake

was perfectly calm, and in smooth glossy surface formed a fine foreground to the three tablet.j|iped hills of Ruawahie, To Wahanga, and] Parawera. which lie closely ndjucpnt to each! "other on the south-east side of the lake. The shores of this lake are for the mdst part loiv and much broken, and the margin is formed into numerous hays and creeks, which gives it on the whole an appearance somewhat different from most of the other lakes; in fact, of all the lakes wc visited no two possess exactly similar characteristics. Krom the hay into which the little cascade above-mentioned falls, our tiack lay fur about a quarter of a mile further along the margin of the lake to the settlement called Te Ruakeria, the name of which has lately betii changed to Kariri (dalilee). And here may be noticed an extraordinary fancy which the natives have lately adop'cd for calling many of their settlements by names taken from Scrip lure, such as Jericho, Jerusalem, Babylon, Philippi, ISabel (perhaps not the least appropriate of all), and many others, to the exclusion of the old native names, which are in all cases much more euphonious than the new ones they have selected, and have almost all a iiie.iiiing attached to them, many of which are connected with very interesting legends and traditions. But to return to our journey. When wc had arrived within about one hundred yards of the pa we were met by a larce party of natives, waving their red, blue, and white blankets, strips of white calico, &c. f and singing the | usual song of ip Iconic already described. The j only difference between this and other welcomes [was, 'hat it was accompanied by firing blank cartridge, an expense which the inhabitants of the other settlements we had visited did not indulge. Te Rua Keria is the station of the Rev. m. M. Spencer, of the Church Mission, whom we were not fortunate enough to find at home. We received, however, a most hospitable welcome from Mrs. Spencer, who, at the same time, told us that we should have the pleasure of seeing Mr. Spencer at Taupo, whither he had gone on some affairs connected with his mission. There was a large assembly of natives in the village, headed by their chief, a sickly hut dignified looking old man, called Te Ran iheua or Kiriivera; then followed the usual amount of speechifying on the part of the natives, and a most unmusical and dismal howling over our friend Te Hen Heu, in the middle of which we escaped to the hospitable tea table of Mrs. Spencer. Friday 28lh.—After breakfast Symonds, Clarke, and I, departed in a small.canoe for the waterfall mentioned yesterday, as Clarke wished to lake a sketch of the lake and mountains from the best point of view, which he was pievented by indisposition from accomplishing yesterday. Wc returned in about an hour and a half, which time had been occupied by the Governor and Mr. Chapman in conversing with the natives in the pa. After partaking of an early dinner we took leave of Mrs. Spencer and started in a large war canoe, accompanied by Te Kangiheua for a settlement called Te Ariki or Piripi (Philippi), situated at the extremity of a long creek or arm of the lake called Ngutuahi. As we crossed the lake we obtained, over a low pari of the shore —through which'a river runs forming the outlet of Tarawera —a view of Mount Kdgecomhc in the distance, probibly from 140 to 180 miles off The shores at the entrance of the crK'k of Ngutuahi are steep and approach near to each other like the heads of a harbour, and on the northern bank or iiead as it might be called, was formerly situated a strong pa called Moura, which was famous in the war as a-i almost impregnable strong-hold. As wc pulled up the creek we opened on our right, another arm or branch called Hakaipari, which seemed to run a considerable distance to the northward. The creek of Ngutuahi widens out into a sort of small lake after a short distance, at the extremity of which is the. settlement of Te Ariki, which consists merely of a few huts, and stands on a bank overlooking the lake. The ascent to it is very steep, and on the side of the hill was a crowd of natives awaiting our approach who welcomed us in the usual manner, after which they commenced their everlasting tangi expressive of their joy at meeting Te Heu lieu. During the performance of this dismal ceremony we selected the site for our tents, which were pitched within the enclosure surrounding the chapel, where ' the ground was clear and level, and where we j were detatched to a convenient distance from ' the natives houses. While our men were ■ pitching the tents, the Governor, Mr. Chapjnan and I walked over to Roto Mahana, i and the road to which lies at the bottom of a valley, through which a small creek runs from Roto Mahaua into the waters of Tarawcra at a little distance from Te Ariki. After taking a cursory view of the wonders and beauties of, this most wond':iful and beautiful place, we i returned to our camp, just in time to attend j service which was held by Mr. Chapman in I Ihe native chapel before dark. The natives at this settlement are those to whom Roto Ma- I I liana principally belong, and at certain seasons I

they live there, where th y have kilns of flat stones placed over some of the boiling springs for the purpose of drying the kernels of the berr.ie* of the Tawa tree, which are considered by them as a great delicacy. This being the breeding season of the ducks and other wild fowl with which the waters of Roto Mahana swarm ; tney are preserved by a most rigid tapii, until the young are quite fledged, when such of the tribes in the neighbourhood as have an acknowledged proprietory right in Ro'o Maliaiia, assemble at Piripai for the purpose of having a feast, when the number of young ducks, pnkekos and other birds killed, is described as being enormous The natives by way of being very civil told the Governor that we might, as a mailer of great favour, shoot the biids; but they particularly wished it to be understood that our c se was not to be made a precedent for future travellers. His Excellency, however, after thanking the old chief for his kind offer, explained to him that it was customary in England to preserve all manner of game, nit only birds, but beasts and even fishes at certain seasons hy strict laws, which prevented any one from even shooting them or using any other means of des roying them, and that even during the seasons when it was lawful to kill game, the noblemen and | gentlemen having estates on which game lived, were in the habit of preventing people from destioying them without permission. The natives, therefore, he said had a perfect right to preserve their game if they pleased, and that neither himself nor any of his party would ill any way disturb or otherwise injure or alarm the birds on Roto Alahann. This pleased them very much, and at their request we wrote out a notice in Maori and English, telling all future travellers that they weie at liberty to go to Roto Mahana and sec whatever was worth looking at there, but that they must on no account lire nt or otherwise disturb the birds which they might find on the lake.