224 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. Vin. 
of the wars in the interior. His name was Konatu, 
or " Stand there ! " I procured one or two more boys 
at TVaikawa, and, by increasing the weight of the 
loads, managed to distribute all my cargo among the 
diminished number. 
It was only on the next day, about noon, that the 
weather would allow us to cross the bay, as a strong 
southerly gale caused a rippling sea in the entrance, 
which is nearly a mile wide. About the middle lies a 
reef of rocks ; and vessels- enter between this and the 
south head, over a bar which bears fifteen feet at high 
water spring-tides, the fall of tide being from six to 
seven feet. 
We now ascended a wooded ridge, through forests of 
much smaller timber and less impeded by kareau than 
that between Pitone and Porinia. Four or five miles of 
easy travelling brought us on to an extensive and some- 
what tabular amphitheatre, cleared to the extent of 
two or three hundred acres for native potato-gardens ; 
and whence we looked, through the naked trunks of 
the trees left standing in the clearing, upon the island 
of Kapiii, and a long reach of the sandy beach and 
level country opposite. Penetrating through the gar- 
dens to the edge of a steep declivity overlooking the 
beach of a semicircular bay, we saw, on a spur of the 
table-land separated by two deep gullies through which 
streams run to the sea, a native pa or fort. This, my 
guides told me, was Pukerua, or *' Two hills," the 
usual residence of "the Wild Fellow," whose noisy 
acquaintance we had made at Kapiti. From the 
depressed end of this spur the cliffy edge of the am- 
phitheatre rises on either hand to a great height. To 
the north, especially, the coast for four or five miles is 
backed by an almost perpendicular wall 300 feet in 
height, but completely covered with stunted verdure. 
In crossing the gully to arrive at the pa, we were 
