834 
peatedly found hospitable quarters in European houses , with settlers 
or missionaries; but now the European settlements ceased and we 
had to travel to lake Taupo through a country exclusively, and 
for long distances but thinly, populated by natives. My guides 
representing to me that the road was very difficult to travel, that 
it lay through numerous swamps and woods, up and down steep 
mountains, rendering the transportation of the heavy photographic 
chests impracticable,. 1 proposed to Mr. Hamel, to travel direct 
to Lake Rotorua, thence to Lake Tarawera, and to meet us again 
at the latter place after having taken views of the most interesting 
points. Thus we parted : Mr. Hamel , accompanied by four natives, 
set out in the direction of Otawhao; my route lay in a southerly 
direction up the Waipa, and after the departure of the photographic 
company, my party numbered only eighteen. My servant James, 
whom I had been obliged to leave behind sick at Mr. Read’s, 1 
had supplanted by a robust young fellow, named Harry Turner, 
— a first rate specimen of the Maori-European mixed race, who 
would have been an honour to any grenadier-regiment in Europe. 
We took a hearty leave of Mr. Read and his family, and 
when upon starting we waved, after German manner, a final, cor- 
dial farewell to the amiable ladies of the house , one of the Maoris 
said: “now look, these gentlemen are real European chiefs; they 
have manners, indeed; the others are only slaves.” My knee still 
smarting considerably , and the nature of the ground admitting of 
riding on horse-back , I had made use of the kind offer of Mr. 
Read, who lent me one of his horses. Not far from the mis- 
sionary station we had to cross the Waipa; the water in the river 
was so low, that I could easily ford it, my companions crossing 
in canoes. Our road lead thence along the right (East) bank up 
the river. The landscape on both banks of the river attracts at- 
tention by the extreme regularity of the terrace formation , present- 
ing itself in three successive levels. In its sinuous course the river 
intersects a broad alluvial plain, rising from 12 to 15 feet above 
its bed. A steep bluff, 20 to 30 feet high, leads from this first 
terrace on to a second extremely fertile, and well cultivated plain; 
