MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 March 1940, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

THE WHITE TERRACES. (Recorded by J.H.S. for the “Times-Age.”) In attempting to describe the marvellous beauty of Te Tarata (The White Terraces) which were engulfed in the Tarawera eruption, one utterly fails to reproduce the sensation caused by their unique appearance. In the attempt to convey an impression by voice, pen or picture, I may compare the difficulty with that of describing a colour, red, blue, purple, or green, to a person who had been born blind. In the golden sunshine of the Christmas season 1881 ten of us stood before that eleven acres of more than 100 symmetrical half-circular terraces bordered by pure white margins of silica, each one containing radiant blue pools of chemical water. Once in every 24 hours, the huge boiling cauldron at the summit. 200 feet in diameter, threw out thousands of gallons of mineral waters, reaching every foot of the vast surfaces of that eleven acres of symmetrical terraces, thus constantly renewing the snow white margin of every half circular pool.

Around the outer boundaries of the whole formation, within the margin of the daily moisture of steam when the regular overflow of boiling water occurred, generally at sunset, th'ere grew orchids, ferns, creepers and shrubs untouched by frost or snow as j'i a hot house. Without a single exception worldwide travellers agreed that the Terraces were the most beautiful tilings in Nature.