j,o 4 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



miles clown the \Yaikato River from Taupo. After leaving the Gorge the mountain 

 mass of Hapurangi, swelling like a dome from the plain, dominates the prospect until 

 one comes within view of the colossal Mount Horohoro, rising like a gigantic wall to 

 a height of two thousand four hundred feet above the sea-level, with a dense forest at 

 its base, and beyond that on all sides a broad plain of pumice. Far away to the 

 south-east lie the Paeroa Mountains, quaking with internal fires, and penetrated by 

 boiling mud pools and hot springs. Ten miles below Orakeikorako, the Waikato River 

 forms itself into a long and rapid reach, having a breadth of two or three chains. At 

 Orakeikorako, both sides of the River are studded with innumerable steam-jets and hot 

 springs (Hochstetter counted seventy-six of the former) while the banks are fringed with 

 thick clustering masses of pure white silica. The place and its Maori settlement derive 

 their name from a great geyser of intermittent action, which, while in play, throws off 

 a column of boiling water to a height of fifty feet. A broad terrace of silica in 

 process of disintegration carries a path which leads to the "Alum Cave," which is more 

 properly a hole from thirty to forty feet deep, whose walls and loose boulders are 

 coated with an inflorescence of alum. The other route lies to the westward, and is that 

 traversed by the coach, but its features are decidedly inferior in point of interest. 



After a journey of about thirty miles we reach Ateamuri, where the Waikato winds 

 through a rocky valley margined by steep mountains; while, at the bridge, the River 

 thunders over enormous rocks and boulders. Here a tremendous pinnacle of rock called 

 Pohaturoa rears its curious form to a height of four hundred feet and overlooks the 

 mass of huge boulders that lie scattered about its base. Thence, we mount to the 

 central table-land of Taupo, with its desolate plains covered with snow-white pumice. 

 Wairakei, or the " Valley of Geysers," six miles from Taupo, is certainly one of the 

 marvels of the world. Its precipitous sides, from sixty to one hundred feet in height, 

 are beautifully clad with trees, ferns and mosses of diversified hues, while clown its 

 centre flows the hot stream known as Te Wairakei, replete with thermal phenomena. 

 Clouds of vapour ascend on every hand, and the insecurity of the soil renders it 

 necessary to pick one's steps with due caution. The stream, fed by the hot springs 

 on its banks, opens out into a charming blue lakelet, at a little distance above 

 which heavy thuds, followed by reverberations that shake the ground, would almost 

 persuade the visitor that he stands over the site of some vast internal forge. This 

 is " The Steam Hammer." 



On the southern bank of the stream, we pass in review the various geysers : 

 Terekereke, a dark cavern with a rocky bridge ; Tuhuatahi, a huge boiling chauldron 

 with a circular basin about fifty feet in diameter, whose clear waters are in constant 

 effervescence; the Great and Little Wairakei ; and "The Heron's Nest," a geyser cone of 

 incrusted sticks, with an intermittent fountain and surrounded by numerous fumaroles. 

 Crossing to the northern bank near the location of "The Steam Hammer," we pass the 

 " Petrifying Geyser," a curious spring whose waters invest every substance that they meet 

 with a beautiful incrustation suggestive of nothing so much as red coral; the "Terraces," 

 fit theme for painter or poet ; Nga Mahanga, or " The Twins," a large pear-shaped 

 basin, twenty-four by twelve feet, with its lip festooned by pendant masses of sponge, 

 and divided into two parts by a band of sinter a fountain plays at five-minute intervals ; 



