TAUPO - NUI - A - TIA

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 47, 3 December 1952, Page 1

TAUPO - NUI - A - TIA

TALES OF THE TAUPO COUNTRY

(By

R.H

.W.)

On New Year's Day next, at Z.du p.m., it will be one hundred and three years since Sir George Grey arrived at Waipahihi, near Taupo, the first iGovernor of New Zealand to visit the Taupo Country. He was on a journey from Auckland, via the Thames, Rotorua and Taupo, to Taranaki, made of necessity on foot, except where canoes could be used on rivers and lakes. His journey was made for the purpose of acquiring a personal knowledge of the Maori people of the interior of the island, and of learning the language and hearing traditions and folk-lore. It is interesting to note that it was on this journey that the Governor heard the now famous story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai. He was visiting Mokoia Island, in Lake Rotorua, on Boxing Day 1849, and sat down to rest at the edge of a beautiful warm spring. A chief came up and related the tale to Grey, who made him repeat it and wrote it down in his note-book. When the Governor, later in the day, told his friend, Mr Chapman, the ffiissionary, who was stationed at Te Ngae, of the incL dent, it turned out that he had not heard the story, though he had lived in Rotorua a good many years, but on enquiring from some of his Maori eonverts he found that it was well known to them. After visiting a number of the villages on the Rotorua Lakes the party set out from the south west end of Lake Tarawera, that being the starting point of one of the usual tracks to Taupo.

Leaving the lake at seven a.m. the Waiotapu stream was reached at three p.m., and a camp was made. The next day was New Year's Day 1850, and a start was made soon after five. The boiling spring, Te Kohaki, now known as Ohaki, was passed, and a bait was made for a meal on the bank of the Waikato just after the Pusta stream had been i crossed. Across the Waikato was a small pa called Takapou, the chief of which crossed the river to pay his respects to the Governor. He was described as a very rough, savage looking man, and it is recorded that the style of his conversation was not civil. At noon the party reached Lake Rotokawa, from where the track led round the northern base of Tauhara Mountain. The value of the mountain to the Maoris as a place for cutilvations, mentioned in a recent article, is referred to by Mr G. S. Cooper, the Governohs secretary, who wrote that "being the only piece of really rich land for some distance, it is covered nearly to the top with patches of cultivation, cleared from amidst the timber with which the mountain is clothed." After leaving Tauhara the party passed through some sulphurous springs called Waihore.

The Governor was accompanied on the trip by the chief of the Tuwharetoa people, Iwikau, brother of Te Heuheu Mananui. Iwikau had gone to Auckland, with a party of followers, to escort the Governor to Taupo, and now, on sighting the Lake, he led the way, laughing and chatting, delighted that he was nearing home. At half past two the lake was reached where the warm stream runs in at Waipahihi and the party enjoyed a bath. The intended destination was the settlement of Rangatira, which had recently been renamed Jerusalem (Hiruharama). It was situated on the southern promontory

1 • '• . — — - — * of the present Acacia Ray, and up to about thirty odd years ago the site could be identified by the presence of some old fruit trees amongst the fern and scrub. The acacia trees of today are survivors of those missionary days. It was four o'clock j when the party's bearers arrived , with the baggage, and a fire was iit on the beach as a signai for canoes to be sent across from Jerusalem. It was six when these arrived, but by then the wind had sprung up and the lake was too :ough for the canoes to return, so that a camp had to be pitched for the night. (To be Continued.)