of New Zealand, and of the country most renowned in Maori song and legend;—and on a spot where, in the memory of men still living, human victims were sacrificed and cannibal feasts were held.
From Ohinemutu we visited the neighbouring geysers and solfataras of Whakarewarewa, which at intervals throw high into the air columns of water, with whirling clouds of steam and showers of piimice stone. Thence we rode over the hills, skirting the deep blue lakes of Tikitapu and Rotokakaki,—both embosomed in overhanging forests and craggy cliffs,—to Tarawera, which surpasses in wild grandeur of scenery all its rival lakes. On the following morning we crossed Lake Tarawera in native canoes, and encamped for the night by the side of one of the famous terrace-fountains[1] of Lake Rotomahana,—the most striking marvels in this region of wonders, and of which no verbal description can convey any adequate idea. They have been likened to cascades of bright and sparkling water, gently falling from blue basins of turquoise over a succession of natural shelves, and suddenly turned, as they fall, into terraces of white marble,[2] streaked with soft lines of pink. Many rare and delicate ferns, and other plants usually found only in the Tropics, cling in green clusters round the snow-white margin of the fountains, and flourish in luxuriant growth in the warm and dank air.
From Rotomahana we rode back in two days to Maketu, and thence returned by sea to Auckland. Thus it will be seen that the chief points in the district of the Hot Lakes can even now be visited by active horsemen in an excursion of a week or ten days. The natives alone have hitherto made practical use, for the cure of various diseases, of the healing properties of these waters. But when, through the progress of colonisation, these springs, truly described by Hochstetter as the "grandest in the world," shall have become more accessible, it cannot be doubted that, as multitudes of summer tourists from the cities of the old world now resort to the warm baths of Germany, and to the mountains of Switzerland, so thousands will hereafter flock from Australia, and from all parts of the southern hemisphere, to those regions of New Zealand where nature displays many of her most remarkable beauties and wonders in the most genial and healthy of climates.
I shall not trespass on your time and patience by dwelling at greater length on this part of my subject. The Lake district of the North Island has been fully described in the well-known and elaborate work of Dr.
- ↑ Named respectively Te Tarata and Otukapuarangi. The first of these names is said to signify "the tattooed rock," and to refer to the strange figures and shapes formed by the silicious deposits of the terraces. The second name means "cloudy atmosphere," from the continually ascending clouds of steam.
- ↑ The terraces of Rotomahana are encrusted by the overflowing waters with a white silicious deposit, the growth of many years.— See "Hochstetter's New Zealand," chap. 18.
