frequented by the natives on their way to the East Coast. This is a memorable day for me, having just put my last bit of tobacco in my pipe. I am afraid time, or rather wet weather, will seem long as I now have no amusement left. . . . There is a fresh water mussel, called Kaichau, abounding in this lake which we also found in Rotoroa, which, when boiled with the roots of the raupo, or bullrush, makes a palatable dish, and is the favourite meal of the celebrated savage Rauparaha.”
On the following day the return journey to the Mawhera River was made, and on February 1st Brunner said good-bye to the Coast natives and with his original party set out for Nelson. He travelled up the Mawhera-iti, or Little Grey, and, crossing the Waimunga Saddle, dropped down into the valley of the Inangahua, following this river down to its confluence with the Buller, which was reached just four weeks later.
April was ushered in by very bad weather and the river they were traversing soon became very high. On the 3rd the rain continued to pour down, and at midday a stream came rolling down the cliffs at the foot of which the travellers were camped, totally destroying the shelter they had erected. So rapid was the rise of the river that they were compelled to build a ladder and so reach a ledge some twenty feet higher up the cliff.
