DESCEIPTIYE NARRATIVE OF JOURNEY. 51 
small stock of provisions. As the water in the neighbourhood was 
very brackish, we suffered a good deal from thirst, but by starting 
at nine o’clock at night, crossing by starlight the rivers Totara 
and Okari, we reached the shores of the little harbour of Tauranga 
at twelve o’clock. There we found some fresh water, which was 
not a little comfort to us, and we all felt that we would rather be 
one day without a meal, as we had been, than seventeen hours 
without a drink, our thirst, too, having been increased by eating 
paste made with brackish water at the Totara. 
On the next morning, the 13th June, we enjoyed very much the 
view across the pretty boat harbour of Tauranga, and were soon 
on our way to the Buller, which we hoped to reach in the 
afternoon. The coast again became rocky, granitic and meta- 
morphic rocks forming bold cliffs, round or over which the 
traveller has to climb, and outside of which stand the high cliffs 
call ed the Three Steeples, breaking the line of the quiet sea horizon. 
Beyond Cape Foulwind limestone again appears, but along sandy 
beach enabled us to travel with ease to Omau Point. Here I 
obtained a complete view towards the north, a view which the most 
indolent traveller could not but admire. The coast, at first 
retiring towards the north-east for about fifty miles, then turns 
towards the north-west for the next forty, forming a very extensive 
bay. Far away lay Pocky Point, the most westerly promontory of 
that part of the Island, between which and the point where we 
stood numerous picturesque headlands projected into the sea. 
Above these appeared higher hills, whilst behind them all, clad 
with dazzling snow, towered the great mountain chain which 
forms the back bone of the Island, and in the recesses of which the 
Aorere, Takaka, Wangapeka, Matiri, Ivaramea, and other rivers 
take their rise. 
From this point a long sandy beach begins, forming the seaward 
boundary of the Buller delta. Over this we hurried towards the 
mouth of the river, which we reached in the evening. The store¬ 
keeper, whom I had sent forward from the Grey, hearing the 
report of our gun, came across the Buller lagoon, which stretches 
towards the south, and we were soon comfortably lodged in the 
substantial whare which he had built, and thus, after an interval 
of more than five months, we again slept under a roof, and enjoyed 
the conveniences of a table and chair. I had hoped to find a 
canoe ready to ascend the river, having made arrangements lor 
that purpose with the native Livai, whom I had seen at the Grey, 
and who promised me that he would do all that was necessary to 
enable me to start immediately after my arrival, which 1 was 
anxious to do without delay. I was therefore much disappointed 
at finding that he had not done so, and, moreover, that he was not 
willing to do it, raising so many difficulties concerning the season, 
the freshes, &c., that I saw I should not succeed with him. The 
Canterbury diggers, who had come at the wrong season, having 
