ON HORSEBACK to the LAKES. [BY ONE OF A PARTY.] VII. HOMEWARD BOUND.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1706, 12 June 1883, Page 3

ON HORSEBACK to the LAKES. [BY ONE OF A PARTY.] VII. HOMEWARD BOUND.

The return trip across beautiful Tarawera was delightful and exhilarating in the extreme. The wind had freshened since morning, and out in the more exposed parts ot the lake " white caps" were already visible. We tiimmccl the boat as well as we could, as our gallant marineis /ixed up a sail. Kate took up her station at the bow, and, worn out with the fatigues of the day, speedily fell into a leposeful sleep, reclining Ikm head on the knees of the youngest ot our paity. lie did not appear to lesent the lihcity in the least. Whatever part Maoris may have been cut out by a wise Piovidcncc to fill in the economy ot nature, sailing a boat is not their strong point. As sailois they ate not a success ; as the genial Aitcmus Mould say, they do not wear the belt. They an; adepts with the paddle, they aic fait ly, passably good at the oar, but in the management of a sail they are most disgusting fiauds. We aie by no means a funky lot ; we had gone over awful bush tracks without fainting, and we had danced around the boiling mud and hot water holes pervading this thermal region with a lecklessness perfectly alarming. But we jibbed on the sail business. The sensation produced by the whole ciew rushing wildly fore and aft, in their insane cfFbib to rig the canvass in a fashion agiocable to themselves was not cheerful enough to justify our retaining it. Accordingly, after some trouble, we struck a bargain with the gay biiccaneeis, the terms of which weie that in consideration of lecciving a ccitain quantity of a coidial known to com neice as Him, they would waive all lipht to imperil our lives by keeping up their sail. Then we breathed fieely once moie, and were able to regard and admire the bright pictures spiead out on all sidesof us The water ot the lake is remarkably transpaient Sitting in the stern of the boat and looking over the side, I was astonished to see, fathoms deep, pebbles, and what seemed to be loots of tiees. Some years ago the water in T.irawera suddenly and unaccountably changed to a muddy green colour, and became unwholesome. It lem.iined so for some time ; I forget how lorn,' ; but eventually it lnttirncd to its original purity. .Doubtless some of those subterranean distui banccs, which must be of moie or less frequent occuncnce in thissinguhily doweled country, were the cause of the change, though the natives, as is natuial enough, attnbuted it to the anger of the god who specially watches over blue Tiu.iucia. The evening was closing in as we 1 cached the landing place, and aftci toiling up the long path to Waiioa we found that the tliouglittul landlord of the Kotomahana Hotel, anticipating our wants, had a sumptuous dinnei laid out for us. The "touiists" weie there jii'-t before us, and had the resources of the hotel been of the avciage kind they would have left us nothing, But Mr ATcKac is a true lion's piovider, and we arose from his table with hunger and thust satisfied. Everything now had to be done in a lnuiy. We had spun out our stay as long as possible ; had seen j as much as any mortal man could cram into two days with comfort, and now the prospect of the dreary bush track loomed up before us again. For one thing the weather had kept fine, and the road could not have grown worse. With this crumb of comfort we dismissed the subject. Our ride back to Rotorua on this memorable Sunday night was not the least delightful of the experiences of that day. If llotokakahi and Tikitapu lakes are lovely in the sunlight, they lose nothing of their beauty when seen by the light of the moon. If in Tikitapu bush we missed the ehequeicd sunshine and the green alcov es and ai ohw ays c>t the day befoie, we weie lecompensed by the sight of the myriads of tiny glow-worms' lamps, shooting thtough the darkness and making it visible. The fiist view of Rotorua Lake ayS we letuuicd was, supeib. The wide sheet of wateis w,is illuminated, save where Mokohia stood, desolate, mysteiious This is how the thing recurs to me now. ' t that time our thoughts weie chiefly cenlml on getting back to Lake House as quickly as possible out of the night air, that was finding its way into the bones of one of the paity. Travelleis and touiists, I suspect, fill in the poetical ideas after the fact ; at any rate it isn't easy to indulge in high-souled rhapsodies when, afflicted with a fifty-Jjorse-power cold, an unpleasant twinge of rheumatism acioss the shoulders, and an incipient toothache, one is jolted from side to side of a thing they dignify with the name of coach, over a rood that is little better than a river bed in parts, and with a diiver, the wag of whose tongue goes nearer to solving the problem of perpetual motion than anything \ ever came across. S.Qinc people could write poetry under hiioh circumstances pprhaps ; there are people who can do anything ; but I am not of then number ; so I have tiied to dovetail a little sontiment in here and theie. It looks awkward, I know, but sentiment in some shape or other has got to be there, so it must remain. At Lake House we sat late into the night, talking over the events of the clay, and in the early morning wo breakfasted and were in th.o saddle once again, shaping oui course for the high wooded plateau to the left.

FINIS. When I first took np my pen to recount the incidents of our short visit to the wonderful country lying so olose and yet almost unknown to mos>t of us, I had no idea that bo much required to be said. As tliinga of tho kind do, the subject grew so on my hands, that now my feeling is that I have not said half enough — that I have omitted the most interesting items in my mental diary. It may be so, but it is too late to repair the omission. Much that came under my observation cannot well be embraced in these articies, but may be dealt with at another time. Meantime, in closing this imperfect rocQrd., lob i,ie say that thp dominant idoa in the minds of our party is of revisiting the lakes at the earliest opportunity.

Mrs Lanotry had recently an opportunity of thoroughly appreciating the adage concerning an anow shot at random. She was witnessing a play at the Union Square Theatre, TS(o\r York, in the course of which a signov tempts a wife to go to America, and by using her voice on the operatic stage, win money for her husband. The lady answers that she has not talent enough. Then says he :—: — "But you have beauty, and by the aid of the newspapers you will succeed even without talent." 'Apropos of ]\frs Langtry it is now stated that Mr Gephardt has carried, hia attentions so far as %o engage her for an American tour of of thirty-three weeks next winter. The terms are to be forty per cent, of the gross receipts. Mrs Langtry has declined to appear at the Lyceum Theatre, under Mr Abbey, in the autumn. A Home-made TEijEßHqjjE.— The American Far»\ci\ gives the following directions for making a clieap home-made telephone ;-=To make a good and serviceable telephone, good from one farm house to another, only requires enough wire and two cigar boxes. First select your boxes, and make a hole about half an inch in diameter in the centre of each, then place one in each. p,f th.c houses you wish to, connect 5 ihen get 51b of fiommon iron stove pipe wire, make a loop in one end and put it through the hole in your cigar box, and fasten it with a nail ; then draw it tight to the other box, supporting it when necesosiy w ith a stout cord. YflU % a Wty run your line inj;o house by boring a hole through the gash. Support your boxes with sjats nailed aciQ^s the window, and your telephone is complete. The writer has one that is 200 yds lona;, and cost 45 cents, that will carry music' when the organ is played thirty fees .away in anos\es xwm* s/• t •£„'. ,"'