The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1876-03-16
NEW ZEALAND.
A Description OF the Great Gcyser
Found There.

Found There.
The state of New York has its world
wide wonder in Niagara Falls; the state
of California has its equally marvellous
and renowned Yosemite Valley; and the
province of New Zealand can boast of al
most as great a natural wonder in its
Rotomahaua, or mighty geyser. This
lies inland from Tauranga-which may
be reached by steamer from Auckland
about siXty-five miles. At WaIroa, the
headquarters of the Arawa contingency, /
and the residence of Capt. MAR, Is the /
old mission-hOuse, kept by aFrenchman, !
and surrounded by familiar trees on a !
lovely lite overlooking Lake TareweTa.
There is plenty of fruit here, especially |
cherries. In the mission-hOuse one pleas |
antly repOses till four o'clock in the /
morning when he Is aroused for break |
fast, after which he enters a log canoe, !
thirty or forty feet in length, propelled |
hv four Maori men, and starts for a nine |
mile row up the pretty Tarawera lake. |
| The time occupied to the mouth Of the /
little river is two hours and half. Here |
the water is found to be lukewarm, being |
supplied from the hot springs. The cur
rent of this stream is very swift, and it
requires hard work to force the canoe up
against, it, but by padding and pole
pushing, and sometimes jumping out
! into the stream and pulling, the Maoris
manage to reach "the haven of our de
sires and the elimination of our hopes"
| The hills all around the geyser TEEN with
| hot springs and hot mud in a liquid
state, and constantly bubbling up and
/ emitting a horrible sulphuric smell
which is almost sitting. The ground APP
pears to be but mere crust over boiling
springs, and often so yields to the step
| that one feels as if he were about to de
scend Immediately into the earth.
The great geyser itself is up in the
top of lofty hill, which appears to
have been the extinct crater of a volca-
no, now filled with light blue boiling
water of an unknown depth. The wa
ter is forever seething and boiling, as
if all the fires of perditiOn were ahame
beneath it. 1t is constantly shooting
up in columns from six to thirty feet
in height, which sometimes looks very
beautiful when the SUN converts the
falling globules into showers of pearls
and silver. The great geyser is APP
preached from below by a series of cres-
cent-shaped terraces, bowed outward, a
few feet in height each, and perhaps
100 yards in width, all overlooking till
; you come to the two principal ter
races, the top one of which is always
boiling over into those beneath it. The
steam is almost binding and suf0cat-
. ing when the wind is blowing toward
you. In many Of the pools there are
pleasant bathing places. The water is
l hot on the surface but cool beneath
: the boiling water from the great gey-
l ser above not seeming to penetrate fan
l below the surface of the more distant
: terraces, which it overhows. There are
L ! s-o&fs r,f IL IL
> are called the White Terraces. The rim
: around the boiling caldron is formed
IL of a white substance, like the most del
icate filagree work, almost resembling
;; lace work, such is its regularity anC
u beauty. This white rim, which projects
. some distance over the boiling fountain
Z shows to all the greater advantage be
{ cause of the intense blue of the waters
II These beautiful terrace-brims are formed
/ by deposits of sulphur and silica from
:, the boiling springs on the top of the hill
u which pour down the sides and crush tn
- tea-scrub and other trees growing there
and form the inCrustatiOn. For, strang
II as it may seem, there is green grass ant
~ 4 shrubbeTy to the very verge Ofthe boilin
! fountains Many of the basins appear t
u be made of petrified tea-scrub or ferns
These transformations are very rOUg
II and sharp edged, and very hard on boot
1 or barefoot, though the Maoris, who's
81 feet are hardened, trip over them with
out any serious inconvenience. The We
q ter in all the terraces Is beautifully clea
u and blue.
- Near the great geyser, there is a sprin
:" constantly boiling out of fisSure in
" rock, and called the steam-pipc sprinj
II The noise from this spring can be hear
, a long way off, and it sounds Just like
!" vessel letting off steam; while the he
% water which shoots out of it reminC
IL one of the manner in which a steame
81 when she is light, sends up the watt
~ with her screw, and the action seems
VI be accompanied with a thud-like sour
d. Of similar character. The ground is Ii
orally honey-combed with these bOiliI
steam springs.
From the white terraces one enters
,st canoe and paddles over to the pink te
H. races, but a short distance from Il
le- former. Their formation is the same
or the first, but they are smaller, and, i
it. stead of the pure white brim, they ha
u a pink-tinted border, which is exqu
of itely beautiful, and it is questiOnab
nd whether they are not the prettier of Il
,se two. The effect is lovely and quite e
le- chanting. Between the two sets of te
Iy races one may spend several hours We
he pleasantly and proitably. For this is &C
he tainly one of natures most wOnderf
N phenomena And while it differs fro
ut Niagara and Yosemite, and compariso
lin may be odious it certainly is, in its wa
he quite as marvellous as either of those ty
,ts great resorts of tourists. As yet Il
on Rotomahaua is almost inaccessible
at travellers, owing to the roughness
iaI the route thither, and to the miserab
ig- native accommodations on the way.