4 New Zealand Institute. 
with a request addressed to me, to give a short account of my visits to two 
of the most remarkable regions to be found in this or in any other country. 
I allude, in the first place, to the great volcanic zone in the North Island, 
including the famous Hot Lakes and Springs ; and, secondly, to Milford 
Sound, and the other grand and wondrous inlets of the south-west coast of the 
Middle Island. On the present occasion, I have been requested to contribute 
some descriptions of the great Lake of Taupo and of the surrounding districts, 
which I visited on my recent journey overland from Wellington to Auckland, 
across the centre of the North Island. As it has been previously remarked, 
“the official tours of a Governor may be made practically useful, for they 
enable him to point out from personal knowledge, and in an authoritative 
shape, the resources and capabilities of the several districts of the Colony over 
which he presides, and the advantages which they afford for immigration, and 
for the investment of capital.” It is well known that the published reports 
of my journeys throughout all the Provinces of New Zealand have attracted 
much attention in the mother country ; and that Her Majesty’s Government 
have thought it right, in the interests of this community, to give them wide 
and official circulation by presenting them to the Imperial Parliament. 
I approached the Lake of Taupo from Napier, which I left on the 6th of 
last April. On that evening we reached the first post of the Colonial Forces 
at Te Haroto, thirty-five miles from the port, after passing over an undulating 
country of hill and valley, which, now that permanent tranquillity appears to 
have been established, will soon be occupied by settlers. Te Haroto is a 
strong position, 2,200 feet above the sea, on a high hill, which commands an 
extensive and magnificent prospect of the open ocean and of the coast, as well 
as of the wild mountains and forests of the Urewera country. On the follow- 
ing day we rode from Te Haroto to Opepe, a distance of forty-two miles, over 
much rich land, and through some beautiful scenery of hill and woodland, 
which reminds the European traveller of the Apennines and of the Italian 
slopes of the Alps, though the semi-tropical luxuriance of the New Zealand 
forests far surpasses the vegetation of the Old World. Tt was at Opepe that, 
in June, 1869, a detachment of the Colonial Forces was surprised and cut to 
pieces by Te Kooti. On the 8th we left Opepe ; at a distance from which of 
some twelve miles we reached Tapuaeharuru, the native pa at the north end 
of the Lake of Taupo, near the spot where the River Waikato issues from it 
with tremendous speed and force. Here the Governor was received with 
much enthusiasm by the Maoris of the N gatituwharetoa clan, headed by the 
loyal chief Poihipi Tukairangi, one of the last survivors of those who signed 
the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 ; and one of the few chiefs of the central 
districts of this island who have remained throughout stedfast in their 
allegiance to the Queen. 
