﻿8 Neio Zealand Institute. 



of New Zealand, and of the country most I'enowned 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 Roto- 

 kakaki, — 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* 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,+ 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 aii'. 



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 Switzeiiand, 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 pai-t 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 Otakapuarangi. 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. 



t 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. 



