OVERLAND TO THE LAKHS [BY A TRAMP.] (Concluded.)

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1370, 12 April 1881, Page 2

OVERLAND TO THE LAKHS [BY A TRAMP .] (Concluded.)

There were the same sulphurous pools of various degrees of heat from boiling, down to lukewarm, and the same deep hollows far in the depths of which the roaring and bubbling of the hideouslycompkining demons could be heard, and the same small mud volcanoes boiling over with the nasty black or brown stinking dirt poultice that is so miraculousaciire for pain, just precisely the same as we had heard and seen at Sulphur Point, with here and there a crack in the baked crust of the earth, which exhaled sweet odours, such as the funnel of a locomotive eructs pompously into the faces of poor secondclass travellers. But there were still the geysers to be seen, and as they lay a little further on I started on my expedition thither. I was at once confronted by another native who demanded another shilling for the privilege of seeing this second part of the exhibition. I growled and told him I would certainly write to The Times about it, but he did not seem duly impressed with the awful depth of this Englishman's threat, in all cases of hidden swindle or open violence in whatever part of the world he may be. Of course a degraded savage could not be expected to know how terrible was the danger in which lie stood, and he only repeated his request, and I was glad enough to give way to him, and even to offer him another "bob" to come with us and act as guide. The curious spot in which this wonderful work of Nature, as the showmen say, is on view, is a small flat on the top of a range of small hills. Here there are the same boiling springs of nearly pure sulphur, as in other parts surrounding the lake, but of far greater force, and seemingly holding a greater proportion of sulphur and other chemicals. Five or six of these were surrounded with bright, yellow, or white mounds of sulphur or lime, or salt, and in the centre sloped a mound of considerable height, perhaps 30 feet above the level, rising in terracesof pure whiteorpale yellow, sparkling marble ; the result of the hardening of the fountain of bright fluid that rose from the interior of the cone and flowed over the sides. Sometimes when in full activity the stream rises to a height of thirty feet above the crater from which it emerges, and falls in a hot spray and steam by no means pleasant, however beautiful .with its little rainbows of prismatic colours, but on the day of my visit it was languid and only dribbled over the sides at intervals, and roared and groaned down below out of sight, and all around some smaller imps yelled and struggled and panted down in their holes, one black gentleman being particularly vicious and making the whole surface of the ground shake and tremble with his attempts to escape. One bright sapphire pool as deep and still and happy looking as death may sometimes be, was as inflexible and aa merciless, for it is boiling and no one would escape its touch who might be deceived by its fresh appearance to trifle with the deceitful fury. Several little meunds of bright green melted sulphur steamed and choked themselves and all lookers on close at hand. On one side a second geyser wa3 spouting a stream of boiling water about 20 feet in height from a hole at the side of a clear boiling pool, and it is said that when this geyser is in a state of activity the centre one goes to sleep for a short time. The whole district appears to be one tremendous boiling witches' caldron, only the good old witch in this case works for an amiable purpose, and allows poor mortals to ease their sufferings by the use of her frisrhtful compounds. The pure white thin layers of the deposit from each successive flood of the liquid rising at every minute over the lips of some of those caverns forms a sort of pure marble or coral fretted work of extraordinary gracefulness and delicacy. One great hole of boiling clay was particulary conspicuous, the bank decending about 30 feet, and being formed of hot rotten ground, from which fumes of sulphur rising occasionally covered all the stunted scrub around with a coat of sickly yellow. In another disgusting hole, a shilling or a silver watch held for a few minutes would turn black. In another beautiful bright blue pool of 20 feet in diameter, a bather can sit in hot water while little cascades trickle down the back over his hoad. In another convenient comer the Maoris make vue of the awful powers of Nature for boiling their potatoes which are very kindly turned out to perfection. Another pot used to be a favored one for this purpose, till an unfortunate Maori lady happened to fall into it one day and was stewed up with the potatoes. In one of the holes of rather drier earth, the irreverent natives often cook a steak for visitors or patients, and they are said to be beautifully done. It is likewise mentioned with becoming reverence, that in one of these remarkable springs, the Honorable Mr., or even I think, the Lord Bertie, was providentially and fortunately for the Anglo-Saxon race, cured of paralysis after being asphyxiated, mind you — for choked is too mild a word to make use of when speaking of the nobility, — at Sulphur Point. I have not the pleasure of knowing the honorable or noble gentleman in question, but if anybody would liice to know his exact title for the proper recording of such an act of peculiar grace, he would, I am sure, be gladly obliged by the near relative of a Ducal magnate, who is kind enough to lay aside the high position to which anyone who knows him can at onco see that he was born and educated, and write with truly ducal wit and polished courtesy for a contemporary. From another mixture of sublimely nasty odour, anyone afflicted with liver complaint may drink and be . . . cured. Here the halt, the maimed the impotent, as Scripture puts it .by which I suppose, we may assume she means the paralysed and other unfortunates, may obtain certain and most wonderful relief, and if New Zealanders do really possess any of the boasted nous they are so proud of, they will tako care to make the spot attractive to such gentry, that they will come from all parts of the world in thousands to be cured. Nothing is so well paid for as relief of the sick. I completed my circuit of Kotorua in another day's journey, paying a visit to the Tikitere spring on one aide, a large dark violently boiling fountain, so strongly impregnated with sulphur as to blacken any silver held over it for a few moments, and surrounded by a number of foulsmelling, puffing and blowing, "roaring and mud-throwing lesser imps, such 33 I have described in other places. In the island of Mokoia there is nothing much to admire that I could see, in spite of Sir George Grey's high opinion of it. There was only the spring of about thirty feet by twelve, named Hineraoa's Bath, in which the Maori Venus used to warm her lovely limbs after her swims over to the gentleman with the flute. At the lower end of the lake there is a district of beautiful little lakelets and some springs of pure soda-water, to which my vjsifc was too brief to afford me more than a passing glance at them. . but having already fully described Rptorua and the springs of Sulphur Point and Whakarewarewa, I have said all that is to be said of any others lying about the shores, for tljey are aU nearly alik^e In every respect. Botom*, a pi'esty little woodland sheet of water, sheltered and sweet, might once have been the sacred home of some- gentle s nymph, or the, -fairy birthr place of, some Maori Arthur. |Here some Maori Jupiter may have takep the form, of a swan, and gracefully and majestically stoned with, gome Maw J&efo; •while »U

the stately woods round guarded the spot from intruders ; or, maybe, here was still Danae, lying in all her uncovered charms, and the cloud hanging over and reflecting itself so faithfully in the warm bosom of the little lake, may have contained the loving figure of the immortal admirer, shrouded in gold, for .all we know j but there was an Ht^»f- sadness about the lake not too suggestive of these rare old fancies of our forefathers. Then we saddled our asses, and gat ua down unto Wairoa for another day's journey. Wehad carefully" collected all "tllS pros and the com as to -the , preferability of buggy or saddle, or " padding the hoof " (to use a genuine tramp's expression), and after much korero we - decided upon the latter mode of locomotion, although we neither of us considered ourselves in any way deserving of one conventional tourist's title of athletes, in walking the pleasant journey of ten miles. Through dust and ti-tree and hot swamps, and into thick bush, I and my companion toiled along without finding a very great deal to interest us, or anything to lead us iato an interesting argument, till we came upon another of these delicious little woodland lakes that seem to dot the country about here. We were told that we should, meet with the little bush fairy Tikitapu, and that her blue eyes would charm- us irresistibly, and we were not surprised to see her extending her lovely form in graceful langour by the side of our path, and to hear her singing to herself, with pretended indifference, while her blue eyes sparkled with the fun of making two more pakehas her slaves. How suggestive of the beauties of Heaven, how inspiring with the breath of life would such a scene be to some'poor slave of poverty compelled to live and work or starve amidst the dark noisome, eitinkiug, sin haunted, man-defiled back slums of a city such as London is and Auckland will some day be ! In the course of a few hours we strolled comfortably into the Wairoa Hotel, and thinking we should want all our energy the next day, we soon retired to what the conventional tourist will persist in terming his " couch." Nothing, particular can be said of the Wairoa. It is aniunavoidable break in one's journey to the Terraces, and as such is generally passed over with as few a words as possible, but it is a comfortable and a beautiful place on a corner of Lake Tarawera, another of the string of lovely pieces of water dotted throughout this district, and on beyond Taupo. Here would be the place for a beginner in thfe art of shooting to gratify his ambition, for he might bang away into flocks of hundreds of ducks and other water birds iv which he could not fail to hit something. Anyone walking from Ohinemutu may reckon his expenses at about £2 for the sight of the terraces and certainly the sight is worth more than the fee, but as a prinoiple it is wrong to make a sight too expensive for the common herd, and a reserve for the class that Jeames the footman distinguishes 88 the lowmong. Hotel keepers, boatmen, guided and everybody interested are wrong to make their charges too high for the public unless they want to keop their show and their goods exclusively for themselves and a few favored patrons. I However competition is the best cure for | all such nonsense and if the old school won't favour the public the new echool very soon will as the demand increases, and the common herd will have their share of the good! things of the earth nowa-days even as they have to I upset poor old howmo)uj with his carriage, and Jeame*. behind 1 it. From Wairoa we went in a canoe to Rotomahana, where for the first time I saw ! the glonously-beautifnl White Terraces. How to describe this most wonderful and beautiful handiwork of Nature puzzles one. It is simply the successive deposits of the silica and sulphur contained in the boiling water flowing continually from the crater that crowns the pyramid of about 140 feet in height. Time has hardened this into a series of terraces or steps of snow-white marble, descending to the edge of the lake, and still the water trickling down lies in pools on the terraces, or forma in hanging fretwork of white coral or clear icicles over the edges of each step. A light cloud or mist of steam veils the summit in mystery, and it might continue for ever into the realms of spirit-land. All the most ethereal fancies of the highest poet 3 i might linger about this strange unreal scene, and find ever new subjects for glowing and ever-varying verse, and still the reality would be undepicted, and still remain as unimaginable as the glories of Heaven. Certainly Nature i asserts herself here, and shows how far her power, working with the simplest materials, exceeds tho wildest efforts of poor human brains. The next thing was to mount this glorious staircase, and examine more closely the wonders of its construction, The steps are about 60 or 70 feet in width at the base, and become rather narrower as they rise, the surrounding forest and hanging 1 ferna framing the brilliant white with a tender green that relieves the dazzling eyes. Ab the light plays round the falling water and the edges of the snowy steps it breaks into purple and rose and green decorations, with which it decks each prominence as with a string of jewels, and sometimes as a passing cloud tints the beams of the sun, the whole beautiful scene blushes with a fairy-like rosy hue, deepening into purple and crimson. Each of the little pools of blue or green water lying about ; the steps forms a bath, that contains comfort for the paina of poor humanity, or a separate picture of delicate framework of embroidery, by which the famed beauties of the coral wouldappear coarse. The broad flat at the summit is bounded by the side of a hill ribing above it, and from this issues the flow of boiling water that trickles down the terrace. It comes foaming and bubbling from a sort of cove that may have been the crater of a lava eruption as one visitor surmi&es, though the gradual deposit of the sediment of the water would alone be quite sufficient to form all the wonders of the angel's staircase we have ascended and the gradual process of the formation had been shown to us in the somewhat similar, though very far inferior little terraces of silica and sulphur at Whakarewarewa. We turned J with a sort of relief tj the next picture of forr and useless resistance to the forces of Queen Nature presented by the giant geyser, tossing a column of boiling water high in air, that falls in showers of spray, and rises to the sky in clouds of steam. The deep dreadful softened explosions by which this fountain is propelled, sound like the low rumble of an earthquake so resistless as to turn the bravest man pale at times. The extraordinary catalogue of Nature's wonders to be seen in this district was not exhausted. There was still the Pink Terrace to be Tisited, and that I had been told afforded a sight that in some respects and according to the ideas of some people, excejds the beauties of the White Terrace. ThePiak Terrace is rtf&er smaller and rougher in ontb'ne than its beautiful sister, but she has no other rival in beauty or majesty ia all the world. The same features are presented — the water bursting from the summit and trickling down the sides of the slope to> the lake, and depositing 7 on its way successive terraces or " steps that here are pink instead of pnre glistening irradiated whit©.- Two beautiful sisters — the one dressed in simple white with a pensive innocent majesty in her fook* and her graceful figure; the other clothed in glowing rose, sharter, ; sn4 more volup. tuoas in look, rather less graceful in, figure, rather more abrupt «nd forcible;

than' her ouster, but in hot way perfect. They must not be compared with one another, but with all other rivals. The broken rugged outline of the steps, the huge pink boulders and the less defined regularity of the terraces -form a delicious contrast to the repose and calm be£U,byMof the White Terrace, and the slope-is yfivy grand. Seen in the light of day dawn, or an hour after sunset, no such glorious sight could be found in the whole world. . Having seen so much, we broke our long silence, my companion owning to as great an amount of pleasure and admiration as mine, only as he triumphantly insisted his was for material facts which with all my fancies I could never approach. "Reality goes far beyond the highest efforts of imagination mem friend and when you can present me with a picture drawn from fancy, that can approach this, I will turn mythologist. In the meantime I will stick to my belief in the wonderful facts I see before me without drawing upon the imagination of anybody to find any other objects for my creed." So we did a parting flask and a parting song of ' ' Mem hertz ist am Rhein, ' and ' ' we'll fight and we'll conquer again and again," and "Le bon rei Dagobert mit ses culottes au renvers turantarataratara," and the next day I was back again in dusty Cambridge.