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JOURNAL

Of an Expedition Orerland from Auckland to Taranaki, by way of Rotorua, Taupo, and the West Coast, undertaken, in the Summer of 1819—50, by His Execlleney the Gover-nor-in-Chief' of New Zealand(Coiilinuvd foul out last J Saturday, 2!) th December.—A trememlous hot day. The natives brought us over some line young ducks, and a pukeko which they had snared for us at Koto Mahana. After breakfast we walked about and amused ourselves as we could till dinner time, which we had fixed for one o'clock. In the course of this morning wc witnessed a most solemn and imposing ceremony—the baptism of a very old cliief named Te Ngahue. This iii.?n must have been nearly eighty years of age, and was so broken down and feeble, that lie had the appearance of a dying man-; and such was indeed the case, as the poor old fellow was completely worn out, and could not be expected to live much longer. lie had for a lonir time been an anxious candidate for _a..:...-..° j„i,.-n... „i,„ rn i.. i >"«« muiKed hard, with the assistance of the native teacher, to acquire the necessary knowledge, .lint age and sickness had prevented him from making much progress. lie had learned to read a little, and he knew and believed in all the fundamental and absolutely necessary points of our creed j but the Catechism and other elementary hooks which are required to be learnt by heart as a preliminary to baptism, were completely beyond his powers ; in fact, the poor old man's mind was not snfiieiently strong to enable him to retain anything new on his memory. Under these circumstances, and as it could not be doubted that tile old chief's career in this world was nearly brought lo a close, Mr. Chapman yielded to the earnest desire of himself and his friends, and consented to perform the ceremony at once. Te Ngahue was brought into the chapel, borne on an aino, or native litter, and deposited with the greatest solicitude and care by his relations on the ground, upon a spot at the upper end of the building, which was pointed out to them by Mr. Chapman. He was a line dignified looking old man, ami had evidently, in spite of his now bowed down and decrepit appearance, been in his youth tall and vigorous. It was a truly imposing and touching sight, to see the oil savage—one of the Maori chiefs of the old school, who had often led hjs tribes to deeds of blood and savage warfare, and had feasted, lime after time upon the llesli of his enemies—now meekly offering himself as a candidate for admission into the Church of Christ. Surrounded by a few friends and Kuropeau visitors, and assiduously attended by his wife (a person much'younger than himself), he lay on his litter, the centre of a small knot of persons in a corner of the spacious char-el, while the clergyman performed the baptismal ceremony, which was preceded and finished by a short and touching exhortation to the old man, and to the rest of the little congregation. lie was baptized by the name of Hori (George), and the ceremony ended, he was taken up again in his litter (after naviug shaken hands with the Governor, Mr. Chapman, and the other visitors), carefully wrapped up in his handsome dug skin and kaitaka mats, and borne back to his house in the same way in which he had been brought into the chupel. After dinner we struck our tents and removed the camp lo Koto Mahaua, having first, however, taken a most reluctant leave of our good fiiend Mr. Chapman, who returned that evening by a shorter road to Te Ngae. The road from Parawera reaches Koto Mahana just at the point where ihe little creek before mentioned leaves the lake, and almost immediately at the fcot of the principal Puia, called Te Tarata. Here wc chose tin site for our tents, and while they were being pitched, proceeded to take a more particular survey of the lake, and the wonders it contains. The lake of Iloto Mahana, or the " warm lake," so called from the fact of its waters being entirely tepid, lies at a low elevation, and is surrounded by very high, and in some places precipitous, hills on all except the eastern side, or that which is nearest the lake of Tarawera, on Which side the land is low, a valley (at the bottom of which runs a small stream) lying between th two lakes. Iloto M:ihana, which presents ihe appearance of an immense extinct ctater, has at first sight nothing striking or picturesque in its appearance. The hills surrounding it are perfectly destitute of timber, covered with fern and manuka (or the common tea tree scrub), the growth of which is for the most part stunted, although in the valley above mentioned, and a few other places, especially near the puias, it is luxuriant and somewhat rank. The surface of the lake itself is broken by swampy beds eoveied with rushes, and swarming with wild ducks of several kinds; the Torea, or Stilt {Utenintapus I'icalur —-Taylor) a red-legged sea bird, with blac!< and white body ; and the beautiful L'ukeko (I'arophyrio Afclunatus Taylor), a bird about the size of a small Turkey, with long red legs and a red bill, black back, brea.it bright blue, and white on the belly ami under the lull. These birds

breed amongst Hie weeds and rushes on the borders of the lake ; and on account of the strictness of the tapi| by which they are preserved, are found in immense numbers and very tame. All along the south-east shore «tf the lake, where the soil is of a nature resembling admixture of pipe-clay and red in,numerable puias, or boiling springs" which' constantly emit dense volumes of steam. On this side of the lake are several huts, which are inhabited by the natives at certain seasons of the year, but which during our visit were temporarily abandoned on account of the birds. Opposite to this part of the shore are two small rocky islets, called l'ukuia and Puai, abounding in hot springs, and on which are also built several huts. So soon as the necessary arrangements had been made for pitching our tents, we began to look around us, and the f.rst thing which attracted our attention was naturally the immense and beautiful hot spring oiled Te Tarata, near to the base of which oar 'tents, as before mentioned, were pitched. T'i convey, by mere words, an accurate idea of the beauties of this trnry wonderful and mag? nilicent sight, would he quite impossible. It iuay with truth be said that it beggars description. We had all heard it said, previously to our leaving Auckland, by some travellers who had visited this part of the country not long before us, that to convey to one's mind an idea of the springs of Roto Mahana, one had but to imagine an overgrown limekiln. Mow such an idea could suggest itself to any one certainly did appear to all of us a matter of much wonder. The spring of boiling water is at a height of about eighty feet from the level of the lake, and is contained in a large and nearly circular basin, surrounded by a steep clilf at jtlie back ; but on the side nearest the lake, a regular succession of small semicircular basins, one below the other, like steps of yure white marble, descend to the level of the lake. These steps have been formed by a deposit left by the water, which is constantly overflowing from one basin to the other. This deposit is perfectly white, and is evidently a kind of lime ; and so great is the

quantity held in solution by the water which issues from the spring, that, with the reflection of the blue sky overhead, it has exactly the hue of opal, and is semi-opaque ; so thick is it, that it is impossible lo see the bottom of any of the basins, the depths of which vary from eight feet to eighteen inches. The process of incrustation which is constantly going on (for the water is incessantly overflowing from one range of steps —so to speak—-to the other, and so down to the lake) is so rapid, that any thing left on the edge of one of the baths, where the water will be constantly /lowing over it, becomes completely encrusted in a few weeks. A young duck was once found here, fn a state of perfect preservation, and entirely covered as with a coating of hoarfiost, with the deposit of the waters. The temperature of course varies.in each terrace or range of baths—that at the top being beyond boiling-water heat, whilst at the bottom it is almost cold, so that the traveller may have, with the greatest ease, a bath of any degree of warmth he pleases. Unfortunately, no one. had thought of bringing a thermometer, a circumstance which we very much regretted many times during the journey. Whilst rambling about heie wc found a small imitation canoe made of raupo leaves, such a3 the Maori children ma%«»for playthings, beautifully encrusted. discovered the nest of a torea on the ledge of one of the lower terraces, in a place where the waters did not overlloiv. This nest contained three eggs of • a light blue, with chocolate-coloured spots—they were something larger than pigeons' eggs. Isy the time we had satisfied our curiosity with respect to Te Tarata it was nearly dark, so having enjoyed a comfortable warm bath we retired for the night; but it.was a long time ere wc could manage to sleep, owing to the tremendous noise kept up by our, natives, who were in' great delight amusing themselves in the warm baths, or wai arikis, during the greater part of the night.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MMTKM18510410.2.11

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 60, 10 April 1851, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,648

JOURNAL Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 60, 10 April 1851, Page 3

JOURNAL Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 60, 10 April 1851, Page 3

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