Small schooners of 18 to 20 tons are the means of communi- 
cation between Manukau and Aotea. Larger vessels are prevented 
from passing in by the sand-banks in front of the entrance to the 
harbour. The Aotea Harbour also terminates towards the East 
in two creeks or rivers , the Pakaka North , and the Makamaka 
South. 
The geological features are very simple , but instructive, since 
the two formations, which on the Whaingaroa lie separate, can 
here be observed lying one above the other. The best section 
is exhibited at a white cliff on the Southeast side, visible at 
a great distance , and called Orotangi by the natives , which 
signifies, that here rocks fall down with a rumbling noise. At 
the bottom , lies grayish marl about 40 feet thick and of the same 
description, as on Whaingaroa Harbour, with few fossils. I found 
an Inoceramus and some few Pectens. Above banks of calcareous 
sandstone are piled full of fossils. It is the same formation , to 
which also the tabular limestones of Whaingaroa belong; at the 
neighbouring Puketoa-cliff those sandstone-banks are contiguous to 
the level of the sea. The fossils collected here belong to species 
of Pecten , Spondylus , Cuculaea , Terebratula , Pollicipes , Sccdaria 
and Sclrizaster. This tertiary marl and sandstone formation forms 
round about the Aotea Harbour a ridge of hills furrowed by 
innumerable little gullies. Close by the Heads the quicksand is 
piled up in hills 300 to 400 feet high, and at the water-edge 
here and there thin lignite-beds are visible. 
I reached on the same day yet the Kawhia Harbour, a dis- 
tance of only four or five miles. The road to this harbour leads 
from the settlement Te Kawa Kawa, on the South shore of the 
Aotea Bay, across the fertile, richly cultivated Karikari-plateau 
and thence past sand-hills and small fresh-water ponds abounding 
in eel. With the ferry-man on the Northside of the harbour we 
found comfortable quarters for the night. 
March 25. — Rose early; when 1 stepped from the house 
upon the beach, the Kawhia Harbour lay before me in full morn- 
ing-splendour, a large surface of water, smooth as a mirror. 
