On the 20 th December we stood in front of the entrance to 
the Hauraki Gulf, the South-West bay of which forms the harbour 
of Auckland. Great and Little Barrier Island, or Otea and Hou- 
touru, as the natives call them, with their peaks about 2000 feet 
high , lay before us. In these parts certainly but very few vessels had 
occasion to complain of too fair weather and perfect calm; yet, 
here again we made an exception to the general rule. It was a 
beautiful day; but not a breath of air was stirring to waft us to- 
wards our destination. The weather was much the same on the 
21"' December; currents and slightly adverse winds had driven us 
out of the common route into the Hauraki Gulf past the “Hen and 
Chickens ,” thence between Little Barrier Island and Rodney Point 
as far as the East-coast of Great Barrier Island. Hence Commodore 
v. Wullerstorf decided on entering by the Southern Channel between 
(ape Barrier and Capo Colville, a navigable passage ten miles 
wide, and we sailed slowly along the East-coast of Great Barrier 
Island. 
This island, about 2o miles long, consists of a chain of steep- 
rising, serrated rocky mountains with many summits and sharp 
peaks. The highest point, in the middle of the island, named 
Mount Hobson after the first Governor of New Zealand, is indica- 
ted on the maps as 2330 feet above the level of the sea. Its Northern 
extremities are very remarkably indented rocks, called the “Needles,” 
and the South angle is formed by the round summit of the rocky 
Cape Barrier. While the West-side of the island has a great many 
deeply excavated bays affording excellent moorings, on the shores 
°f wllich both natives and Europeans have settled, the East-coast 
appears as a naked, uninhabited rocky shore with but one bay of 
any size, which is partially screened by “A ride Island,” a lone, 
barren ,• and utterly inaccessible rock , so named by Cook. On the 
Northwest-side of Great Barrier there are some rich copper-mines; 
and in the woods of the island herds of ivikl horned cattle are 
said to roam. 1 
1 In the central part of the island, to the eastward of Wangaparapara , hot 
springs have been recently discovered. They spring up in the bed of a creek, which 
