LAKE ROTORUA.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2378, 30 October 1880, Page 3

LAKE ROTORUA.

A correspondent to the “Cromwell Argus ” in a paper entitled a North Island Trip, writes : Lake Rotorua now comes in sight, and in the far distance can be seen a misty vapor, under which lies the township of Oliiuemutu, the end of our first day’s stage. From the centre of the lake springs the gracefully shaped island of Mokoia, the scene of the legend of the Maori Hero and Leancler, made famous by Domett’s poem of Ranolf and Amohia, and from points in the semi circle, formed by the shore on our left from Ohinemntu to the Ngac, the old mission station; while jets of steam,like columns of white smoke, curl up from the ground. The great geyser of Wai Whakarewarcwa showed its locality faraway by its dense irruption of steam, but did not evince any signs of activity. On a previous visit to it in ’74 it gratified my curiosity, and was then well worth the ride from Tauranga to watch as it took leap after leap, each time attaining greater height as if it was gaining impetus for a final effort, in which it shot a column of boiling water 30 or 40 feet high, then subsiding, leaving exposed to view the funnel sinking down through the top of a high cone, formed by a deposit made by the falling waters. The coach arrived at the lake about live in the evening, and after a swim in the hot lake with several Natives of both sexes, who were disporting themselves like veritable mermen and mermaids, wc sat down to a good dinner of pheasant and wild duck. The remainder of the evening until bed-time was spent in bathing and strolling about the settlement.