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manawa range, and, as it seems, the larger branch, retaining the 
name Tongariro. Evidently it would have been more correct to 
name the tributary coming from the Tongariro volcano also Ton- 
gariro, and to leave the name Waikato to the main-river. Conse- 
quently, according to the Maori nomenclature, the Waikato loses 
its name for the distance from its junction with the Tongariro 
river to its influx into Lake Taupo. 
The foot of the Tongariro is about twelve miles distant from 
the lake. Between the volcano and the Pihanga and Kakaramea 
mountains lying before it, there intervenes a broad valley with 
the beautiful lake Rotoaira, three miles long. The outlet of this 
lake, the Poutu, is one of the principal tributaries of the Wai- 
kato. Dieffenbach mentions here also another smaller lake Roto 
Punamu, shut in round about by mountains as in a crater-basin, 
2417 feet above the level of the sea. In order to scale the Ton- 
gariro , it is necessary to set out from lake Rotoaira. However, 
the difficulties which the natives oppose to such designs, are the 
same now, as in 1841, when Dieffenbach was endeavouring in vain 
to obtain permission to ascend the mountain; or in 1850, when 
the same thing occurred to Sir George Grey. The mountain is 
tapu; and even, should Te Heulieu let himself be persuaded, to 
give his consent to scaling the mountain, To llerekiekie most cer- 
tainly would oppose it the more determ inatcly. The only two 
Europeans, who are said to have been on the top, carried out 
their purpose without the least knowledge of the natives. 1 I made 
1 The difficulty of ascending Tongariro, Dr. Thomson says, does not entirely 
arise from its height, or the roughness of the scoriee, but from the hostility of the 
natives, who have made the mountain U tapu,” or sacred, by calling it the backbone 
and head of their great ancestor. All travellers who have asked permission of the 
natives to ascend Tongariro, have met with indirect refusals. The only way to get 
over this difficulty is, to ascend the mountain unknown to the natives of the place, 
or even your own natives. Mr. Dyson did this, but his. ascent was discovered by 
a curious accident. During his progress up the mountain he took for a time the 
little frequented path which leads along the base of Tongariro to Wlianganui. A 
native returning from that place observed his foot-marks, and knew them to be 
those of a European. As he saw where the footsteps left the path, he, on his ar- 
rival at Rotoaire, proclaimed that a European was now wandering about alone on 
the sacred mountain of Tongariro. The natives immediately suspected it was Mr. 
