JOURNAL

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 608, 31 May 1851, Page 3

JOURNAL

0/ 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 Governor - in-Chief of New Zealand.

(Continued from Ne. 551.) Friday, December 21st.—A cold disagreeable showery morning, and even between the showers the Incessant dripping from the trees overhead kept us wet through. Afterfive hours’ hard walking, the wood being very thick in places and the road bad, we emerged at a distance of about two miles from the lake of Rotorua, of which we obtained a beautiful bird’s-eye view, as we were still at a considerable elevation above the water. This lake is of no great extent, and, viewed from this point, appears to want wood and high land to render the landscape very effective, but it is nevertheless an extremely pretty sheet of water, and the island of Mokoia in the midst of it adds much to the beauty of its appearance. There are a few native huts, inhabited by about a dozen people, with some potato plantations, at the spot where the road issues from the wood. It was about one o’clock when we reached this point, and we were so delighted at leaving the long dreary forest behind, that when the bright sun shone forth upon us (for the weather had cleared up, and it was a beautiful afternoon) upon emerging from the wood, we almost involuntarily gave three cheers, to the great astonishment of an old woman who was weeding the potato ground hard by, and to the extreme consternation of the said old lady’s small dos. which ran yelping behind his mistress, andhaving gained this asylum commenced most valiantly barking and snarling at the intruders. We found the natives very hospitable, giving us as many potatoes as we required for ourselves and men, though as the potatoes were scarcely yet sufficiently ripe to dig, even as new potatoes, it was a considerable sacrifice to the poor people. After partaking of a hearty breakfast we started at about three o’clock for the lake and walked over a fine slope of undulating fern hills, composed of excellent soil, till we reached the mouth of a creek called Te Awa Hou, on crossing which we came to a small pa of Roman Catholic natives, also called Awa Hou. * •

On the margin of the lake, about a mile distant from Te Awa Hou, is the settlement of Puhirua. the chief of which, Hikairo, who is one of the principal men in the district, was absent with his son Edward at Maketu, a harbour in the Bay of Plenty, on the East Coast, where they had expected to meet the Governor. We were rather disappointed at missing our old friend Hikairo, but Robert, the native teacher, did the honors. We pitched our tents on the margin of the lake below the pa, on the very spot where Captain Symonds and Dr. Dieffenbach had encamped when on a visit to Rotorua, nine years previously, The natives brought us a large basket of inanga, a small fish much resembling white bait, which is taken with the seine in