Morning journal and courier., 1881-09-17
Travel in New Zealand-No. 4.
To RotOmahana Through the Hau Hau
 Country.
BY JOHN WURTS.

JOHN WURTS.
 To the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 My experiences on that days ride were both pleasant and the reverse. The was execrable; in many places so steep that was obliged to dismount and walk through sheer pity for my horse, while often we had to make passage with our knives around some great fallen tree. Our progress was naturally slow, but this gave me all the more time to admire the infinite variety and beauty of the forest scenery. Great totara and kauri pines arose majestically until their tops seemed lost in the blue ether the tree ferns were here in all their graceful perfection, and the whole foliage of the forest was interlaced and
 bound together by the wonderful supple jacks which hung to the ground. straight as cathedral bell ropes" Beneath, in the shadow. was a velvety carpet of multitudin- ous ferns, whose endless variety and deli cate, flmy tracery made me regret my ig- norance of botany.
 At noon Katena called halt for dinner,
 and produced from my haversack mess of
 boiled barley wrapped in a piece of clean
 straw mating. Shortly after dinner, we be
 gan to descend, and to see something of the
 open country, while occasionally I could
 catch the sheen from body of water
 in the distance. At the foot of the
 hills we came to small Maori
 village, pointing to which Katena said.
 ''Arewa,' D meaning that Arewas lived there,
 and gave me to understand by signs that it
 was his village I found the natives here
 much dirtier and apparently, more thriftless
 than the Hau Haus I had seen moreover,
 there was not quite the same modesty of car
 riage and speech among the women; albeit
 the Hau Haus have abolished the marriage
 tie, in the hope of thereby increasing the
 population more rapidly. However, my new
 friends gave me very acceptable late din
 ner of fresh water mussels and thistle leaves
 and feed for Moro for all of which thank
 ed them substantially.
 Katena now appeared very anxious for me
 to spend the night in this village and proceed
 the next morning to Ohinemutu, but
 as I was peremptory in my insis-
 tance he saddled one-eyed sorrel
 horse which he bestrede with great deal of
 the evident pride of ownership. I led poor
 Katenas grass sfed screw wild dance for three miles, until, leaping wide ditch I
 was on the coach road from Tauranga to Ohinemutu. Here Katsna was paid of, and as we shouted our adieux I dashed away, and never drew rein until I had passed Rotoiti
 with its bold lacustrine scenery, and arrived at the little inn of Ohinemutu. My first call was for bath, but the landlady, Mrs. Rob inson, begged me to have supper first and in dulge in a warm bath in the open air after ward-advice which was too sensible to be Ohinemutu is on the south west side of Lake Rotorna (second lake, and its chief interest has been given to it by the legend of Hinemoa, one of the most roman tic of the legends which the Maoris love to tell. Now Hinemoa was princess who lived at Ohinemutu, and she loved Tutanekai, the ] son of the chief of Mokoia, an island lying about half mile off shore from Ohinemu- tu. But the parents of Hinsmoa were obdu- rate and had other designs for their daugh- | ter. So one evening Hinemoa, hearing the | sound of her lover's flute (the flute was made 1 of tibia), tied six gourds around her waist l and swam to Mokoia where she hid among | the rocks at the spring. Presently the ser | want of Tutanekai came to the spring for | water and Hinemoa dashed the earthen yes | sel from his hands. The frightened slave l went back and told his master, and Tutane- 1 kai, coming down to punish the presumptu 1 ous intruder, discovered. his inamorata and | they were married and lived happy ever af- l ter The spot where Hinemoa landed on l Mokoia is railed off and is strictly 'stapu," and the descendants of the lovers live in | Ohinemutu to this day.
 In the village there is also "whare," in- l teresting on account of its carvings, which | are we'll executed but strangely grotesque in | design. Ohinemutu appeared to me to oc- l cupy 2 very insecure position on the lid of a l boiling cauldron. At every turn encounter l ed hot pools of boiling springs the sulphur | ous vapors from some of which were decid- l edly overpowering. In every direction | steam was issuing from crevices and by plac- l ing the ear near the ground. a low rumbling 1 sound could be heard through the crust. | was told that those who were not desirous of 1 being translated to the lower regions must | take heed of their steps. The native popu- i lation of Ohinemutu are amphibious and at all hours of the day both sexes may be seen idling away their time in the enervating water of the springs
 From Ohinemutu to Wairoa on Lake Tara wesa is nine miles, This distance was &C., the next morning before break fast and as the fording of the Wakerswa- rewa river, half mile beyond Ohinemutu, is somewhat dangerous on account of quick sand I was fortunate in having Wakeham, the rascally little proprietor of the hotel at Wairoa, as guide. The road, after a few miles, passed for some distance through lovely specimen of New Zealand 'bush, D trees of most luxuriant foliage interlaced with parasitic creepers, and arched overhead, land college town had so recently left. I passed Lake Tikitapu (sacred landmark) and Lake Rotokakahi Gake of the Shells), both | of them beautiful little sheets of water, and | from each other only by @ wall of rock few yards in thickness and having no water communication, althougn hotokakah1 is several feet below the level of it's neighbor |
 After a miserable breakfast, cooked by 1 drunken wife, a crew of three | men and one woman, all natives, padded me | in canoe seven miles up Lake Tarawera. The scenery of this part of my trip was more l Swiss than anything had seen. Bold, but l ting cliffs enclosed the lake on all sides, ex- cept at the south, where the volcano of Ton | gariro, surmounted by tall column of smoke and Mt. Ru8pehu, whose snows were not yet melted by the summer sun. At the | mouth of a small stream left the canoe, | and, accompanied by one Maori, made the rest of the distance to Rotomahana-onl half 1