359 
April 14. — The distance from the lake was greater than we 
had . supposed , and the day a dreary one, indicating rain. Tra- 
velling by turns through woods and lawns, we struck once more 
the Kuratao valley at Whakaironui, a potato-plantation at the margin 
of the plateau. The valley of the river is here already wider 
by far and deeper than at the place , where we had spent the nigh . 
We had to climb down over four terraces, a depth of about 
400 feet and crossed the river at a point where it forms a pic- 
turesque cascade 20 feet high, thence rolling on in a narrow bed 
between vertical bluffs of trachyte -tuff. A bridge leads below the 
falls across the defile. 1 On the opposite side we were again ob- 
liged to climb over miserable, slippery paths, from terrace to ter- 
race, up to the height of the pumicestone plateau, and arrived at 
the village Poaru, where we took our dinner. The distance between 
the latter place and the lake is three miles. After we had plodded 
along through marshy woods, we came to an open eminence, 
whence we had the first view of the lake. Like a sea it lay there 
spread out in the distance, without our being able to discern the 
opposite shore in consequence of the murky weather. Gently slop- 
ing down-hill, and passing along the foot of the Kuharua, — a 
beautiful wood-clad mountain-cone , — our path led us across a 
small creek Hauwai on to an elevation , from whence we saw the 
celebrated pah Pukawa, the residence of the great Maori-Chieftain 
Te Heuheu, situated beneath our feet at the margin of the lake. 
It was a cold and dreary day, and now it moreover com- 
menced to rain. “When strangers come, the mountains weep”, is 
the Maori adage. I should have much preferred to have it read : 
“When strangers come, the sun doth smile”, and that the latter 
version had proved true in our case. 
1 Farther down the river, quite close to Lake Taupo, there is a larger cata- 
ract, called Huka, i, e. foam. » 
