CHAPTER II 
LrrrsK IL Whakarbwarbwa.— Okoroire— " Ten a koe "— Geysen— 
WaioUpn Valley — ^A wonderful picture of colour. 
Whakabbwaibwa. 
A DUSTY train and a three-mile drive in the coach 
brought us from Auckland to Okoroire. It is all hill 
and meadow country, with numbers of sheep and cattle 
grazing everywhere, and as the sun went down behind 
the blue mountains, and a purple haze on the fern- 
covered hills, you might have fancied yourself looking 
over veritable Scotch moors. The sun is always very 
hot in the middle of the day ; but a cool breeze springs 
up in the evening, and here the air was delightfully 
fresh and much more bracing than in Auckland, for the 
Waihou River runs at the foot of the hill, just below the 
hotel, and the springs for which Okoroire is celebrated 
are not three yards from the bank. There are three 
or four of them of different degrees of heat, and all 
strong mineral waters. We each tried them before 
going to bed, and also in the morning. They are only 
five feet deep, but the water is so buoyant that you can 
hardly keep on your feet, and the sensation of the 
bubbling water is not quite pleasant at first We felt 
more confident next morning when in daylight we 
could see the clear crystal-looking water. The sulphur 
one (the Fairy's Pool) has been rightly named. It has 
a high bank all round it of beautiful ferns. The river 
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