NEW YEAR AT WAITOMO

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2887, 15 January 1891, Page 4

NEW YEAR AT WAITOMO

Tiik mornimr of Xeiv Year's Kvc, 1 SO", certainly wore a irloomy asseet. L)u. grev clouds, the messenger-* of rain, drovacross the obscured sky from north Houtll and seemed gradually to be aeeumulitiny to form one compact ma-"-The huii's rays struegled vainly to pi"ie. their dense covering and "iilv occasional breaks in the upper tier ot eloud- allowc tiiem to i-.-ue f«r!».. I'mmgn uncovered with thin white nii-l- and ii"ii. Ii me to time entirely hidden fr>Mii vie-v. hy thick showers of rain wlueh swept over it. This was Ihe day we had chose i for our expedition to the mueh-talked ot Waitomo caves. He cletneuts certainl) v ere not in our favour, but we hoped foi Iho best. In number we were ,vl, tin ladies lifini; I.liulitlv in the minoiitv. 1-ivout thoi party hailed from l'aterantri. three from To Awaniutu, two troie Hamilton, and tour from Mangere, Tt Aroha, Cambridge and Mercuiy Bay respectively '1 he re*t were citizens ot Alexandra, " loveliest village of tie plain," as no doubt tioldsmith would have called it had he seen it, though he could not havu spoken so positively about the "health and plenty" that; cheereii Ihe labouring swain. At about l'J o clock the pack horse, under the guardianship ot ,r,H., started off from Alexandra laden with two tents, several blankets, and provisions enclosed in tins, kits, baas ami various other receptacles. An hour later .Mr R... the leader aud organiser of tnc expedition, set off with the bulk of tne party amid the prayers of relatives and friends who were left behind, and tho expressions of wonder and astonishment of thorns MaoriH who wore so fortunate us to witness tho departure of tho cavalcade. At half-past one a slight rain began to fall, but in spite of this the neat detachment, ten in number, mounted theneager steeds and road away with as much eclat as could be reasonably expected under the circumstances. As it was to the latter party that the writer ot this narrative belonged, their fortunes will be followed more particularly. After crossing tile Waipa bridge we entered the native settlement of Whatiwhatihoe. We were immediately saluted by the barks of a numerous assemblage of dogs u hose variety in breed and appearance would have made any dog fanciers mouth water. As none of us, however, was a do" fancier we ignored the canine salutations, and began admiring the pertormaoces of certain pigs which lined the roird. A shaggy old boar with one eai and one eye, especially engaged our attention. We had often heard before of a blind pig which we had been asked in ,mr chilhood t.-i spoil iu two letters: sonic of us pioi.ably had even seen one : but we had never before nad the good fortune to meet with a one eyed and one eared boar. Tie: missing eir, too, had not Imcii torn oil nor cut off. but had simply never existed, which was all the niu:e remarkable. After riding on for about half an hour in tolerably good tpiritj v.e uric suddenly thrown into a ...Ute of consternation by the appearance of a iidortc:.;'! horse, with saddle and liridic on, leisurely cantering towards us We recognised it as belonging to T. I'., one of our own party, who had ridden on iu front, and immediately stopped its further progress. Speculations were indulged in as to whether any accident had happened. Presently l\ -t • himself galloped up in the tracks of the, runaway and explained that the young lady wiLli whom lie was riding had been thrown, aud w»3 now fitting by the roadside further on, waiting for iier horse and cavalier to toaop.'ar. The young lady was unfortu unhurt, aiul rcmounUu^, continued her journey. We arrived at Onnsby s gate without any further misadventure. Here a discussion took place as to whether we should go by the old track to Otorohanga, or iollow Mr 1!... who, as some Maoris informed us, had gone on by a new road. W c determined to lind the new road, "We accordingly forded the, strong creek at Arthur Ormsby'y, and kept along the Kawhia road, hoping to discover a track branching off to the left. No likely one, however, appearing, we were obliged to call a halt, and dUciiass our position. Eventually, \V. A. galloped back to Ormsby's house, and obtained the information that we had left the tract: about half-a-niile behind. We retraced our steps, and travelled along the new road until we met A O. who had just returned with a fern hook from putting a bog hole, which it was necessary for us to cross, into a passable, condition. Taking pity on our forlorn plight he. put us ou the old track, along which wo rode with more eoutidenco. Keeping Kopua, where we could sec the Government native school and school house, glittering in the midst of an acacia grove, ou our left, we arrived at the lord of a tributary of the Waipa. K. A., on a small roan horse called Jerusalem, possibly on account of its massive temples, led tho way into a deep hole, from which Jerusalem managed to emerge by a mighty effort. W. A. crossed into a hog, in which his steed began to plunge, and not wishing to incommode the horse in its struggle to extricate itself, gracefully dismounted in the mud. H. I)., however, happened to hit oil a shallow crossing, and tho whole party, women as v."ii a i men, passed over in salclv. 'I tie lada-i, indeed,

by a hlt'o pnsd of n: ivrinc, i" ' iii'i.iscivos. emu i i ! i m 11.- I inn u from thcu.it'::'. l'>' tii'i ! ihi lain was rctllitiu jc'illv ■ v■■ i'c. but -tiil wifli the !; 111 y liiii.f.l Against hope j:, it ;,ii im;ic in tivs shape of weather won!,! iic more favourable. After passing ti.r "even or eight miles through fern and t".iucc land, which supported large number.-! of wild horsis, eati'.e, and pigs, we arrived at the !urd of the Waipa. near the native settlement of Kahotea. This we crossed without uiliiculty, and uivauced slowly lor two miles over the worst part of the road we had as yet met with. Snd.lt lily, after rounding the side of a hill the township ol Otorohonga burst upon our view, and we stood still to admire Our state of mind probably resembled that of the pilgrims when they iirst c:ime in view ol Jerusalem, although none of us wept tears of joy and thankfulness as we read the pilgrims frequently did when they eame in sijjhl of tiie Holy City- Descending the hill and crossing ratiicr an awkward gully we :nlcivd The town wet through, and stopped at the Temperance Hotel, where I hey sell noth;ii!4 stronger tirm hop bcei or lemonade. The lirst party had already been there an hour ; the ladies had t.ii;cu something to «::it and dried their :rinn"nts as well as possible. We rested for half an-hour, ami after being asked by some of the inhabitant-: whether we had any doctors ■with u", whether we had made our wills, with other signiiicant questions of a like nature, again set forward. The fording „f til-.; Waipa, just, li-yond Otorohonga, was the next diHieuM.y All, however, accomplished it in tolerable safety. Now ait 1 again the forepart of a horse would i.c seen disappearing uud.-r Hie surface of i.'no water, whenever the horse stumbled or got into a hole, but a few immersions suffered by the riders were the only results. A "little excitement wis caused by the n:fns il of Miss M. S. s horse to enter the water at all. Having sonic objection to wetting his hoois, he turned broad-s'do on in the liaiiou p..til leading down ;o the ford, pud wedged himself firmly between the two l-auks. Me was promptly ie.:eu.:d irom his position, nnd forced to conq'i.r his aversion 1-0 water. After passing a new li-.x-mill, sec iiflin separated inlo two parties, Mr H. taking the lead. A slow ride o!' seven miles along a narrow slippery track, with nothing but fern and ti-tree around us, brought us to tne new toad from Ilangatiki. We must have formed a stranec picture, the thirty four of us riding along in single file, fantastically costumed, with rain falling and night approaching. Far away in front ot us Miss W., in a yellow oilskin hat and cloak, followed by Miss R. S.. enveloped in a rod ;uul blue ru<_'. -I i'- 11 virile ei.ti figure:;, in dark cloaks au-t oilskins, u iu a brown rug, another in a check

haw!, aud so 11 to the end of the line

v rn white blankets were called into i-(|'.iinition. The silence gradually be ■ iiii'greater a-i time went oil. (onveiit'on w:>s occasionally carried on in a I'll 1 mur>ml and detached sentences by ■ach couple, now and a coo-ee or • houted direction di.-turbe 1 the stillness, reij lien tl V a despairing or " Is t much further':" and " ilow many unre miles'.'" made the tuis in the bush Mini; something unu.-.ual was happening. U hint the camping ground at Wait uno

•va.-. reached. 'I'm: last weary traveller irrived at 8 o'clock, and then the preparitiom for passing the night began. Ti.c lors'S were turned loose or tethered, he girls domiciled in a whurc belonging i') Mr I'Yascr, the caretaker of the cave.;, ,nd the men stowed away in a couple ,f t-ills and two Maori wharrs. After a taki-it-as-you-plea.se supper, everybody retired to the shelter afforded -,y the wlmriM and tents aud such dry hiankets as thero were. How the nifrht ,vas passed may better bo imagined than le-cribed. The jfirlx, having no lire, had 'O pa*s the night iu their wet clothes. Sleep was out of the question. Miss W. had been thrown from her horse on the journey from Otorohunga and was badly uirt. ' Some were very doubtful as to whether they should ever reach home igain and groans and i-iuhs ivere frequeut. |'o heighten other inconveniences there were numerous creepnis about the w hares hut not of "neb a kind as are generally unod for purposes of adornment. The mosQ lities, too, thoturld that they might as well seize the opportunity of spending a happy New Year at the expense of their visitors. The men were rather uioro comfortable, as some of them had tires and were ho enabled to dry their clothes before morning. At 4 o'clock next morning everybody was about again. The weather was as bad as ever and showed no siens of improving. Mr Fra-er arrived at 0 o'clock and wns followed bv four o-; the party who hail not started from Alexandra till o o'clock the previous eveniticr and had stayed at all nU'ht. As soon as possible the whole party with the exception of two or three who had to drive in the horses entered the caves ami inspected them by magnesium light. Miss A. sang ' Scenes that are Brightest ' in the large hall with great effect, a song no doubt appropriate to the occasion. All expressed themselves charmed with what they saw and declared that a? long as tlicy "got home safely their troubles and tribulations would be amply rewarded. A description of the caves themselves we shall reserve for a. future occasion. When the horses were all caught aud saddled the start homewards was made at aboui I*2 o clock. 7,ne re turn journey was very similar iu its incidents to the previous day's ride and needs no further description. The slippery state of the roads caused five of the party to experience ignominious descents from their steeds but. no serious consequence* resulted. The first arrivals reached Alexandra at half-past three ; the last, a party of three, Misses A. ami . ami Mr 1..', did not gel. in till live hour.-, later. They hail found their way to Kopua instead of Whatiwhatihoe, aud one of their horses was knocked up so that they could not get along very quickly. It was rumoured next day that the fatigued horse had suffered so severely that it was no longer of any use, and had accordingly been shoe to save its hide. This, however, was found to be a baseless fabrication. After all, nobody was found to be much the wor.'e and all expressed their readiness to go on a like expedition on some future occasion. Let as hope that if such ail occasion shouln srise the weather may be more propitious and that a more pleasant uiaht may be spent than that of our ever-to-bfc-rcmembcred .New \ ear s Eve. O.VE «r TIIK SCTKVI volts.