348 
called Puhanga, which I found to be 937 feet above the level of 
the sea. 
I believe , we were not less astonished to find in that lonely 
wilderness a colony numbering fourteen persons, than the Maoris 
were, to see Pakehas to visit them. We evidently created quite 
a sensation; the children seemed for the first time to have seen 
white men; yet we were received with a cordial welcome, and 
the women at once proceeded to prepare a meal , cooking it by 
means of heated stones in holes dug in the ground. 1 It was set 
before us in newly made baskets — potatoes and pork, as ever 
and everywhere. Puhanga has an extremely romantic site in a 
beautiful region of wood-clad mountains; in the rainy season, how- 
ever, it must be perfectly inaccessible , and the two families, which, 
as I was told , sought a refuge here , in order to live secluded from 
the rest of mankind, could hardly have found a place more suited 
to their purpose. 
At 3 o’clock we set out. Our road lay again down-hill through 
bush, then through a broad, deep swamp; thence over a wood- 
grown eminence , from which we had an unobstructed view of the 
higher mountain-range forming the water-shed between the Mokau 
and Wanganui. Before reaching this range, we had first to pass 
over a very marshy, grass-grown place, called te Koto, the lake, 
and then we encamped in a potatoe-field at a Maori station Maro- 
tawha, four or five miles from Puhanga. 
April 8. — We were up early; our guide having announced 
1 The Hangi Maori, Maori cooking-stove, consists of a hole dug in the ground, 
greater or smaller in proportion to the quantity of meat or potatoes to be cooked 
in it. At the bottom of this hole, round stones are laid, which have been strongly 
heated; above them comes a layer of Phormium-leaves or ferns, or cabbage-leaves, 
if such are at hand. Then follows a layer of meat or potatoes; another layer of 
foliage, and so on, until the hole is full. Then the whole of it is once more care- 
fully covered with leaves, water poured upon it, which is converted by the heated 
stones into steam, and finally they hasten to shovel earth upon it to prevent the 
generating steam from escaping. In this manner the victuals are steamed. For meat, 
the stove must remain covered one and a half to two hours, while potatoes are 
done in twenty minutes. Having applied this method very frequently during our 
journey, 1 can state from personal experience, that meat and potatoes thus steamed 
are a savoury dish. 
