After dinner (which was served at 6 p.m.) we took our seats in the car which went to Karapeeti (the safety valve of the North Island) and the “Huka” falls, a little higher up the Waikato.

Karapeeti blow hole is an escaping volume of superheated steam with a pressure of 180 lbs. to the square inch coming through an aperture two feet by one foot. The guide lit a sack sprinkled with kerosene so that the visitors could see the escaping steam in the darkness and after the sack had partly burnt away he picked it up on a stick and shook the burning pieces down into the blow hole. These were immediately carried up in the jet of steam and presented a very weird fireworks effect, the sparks remaining alight, proving that it was super-heated or dry steam. This blow hole, according to Maori tradition, has been constant for the last 200 years and the Maoris of the early days of New Zealand used this column of steam as a beacon to guide them with their canoes across Lake Taupo which is six miles distant.

It is very comforting to know that through this energy being dissipated, disastrous results that might follow if it were pent up for any time, are prevented.

We were then taken to the “Huka” falls, on which a searchlight was played, but, as there was a heavy fog, the effect was very disappointing. However, it enabled us to form an idea of the sight of this mass of water, which passes through a narrow opening in the rocks, pouring noisily over the edge into the space below. The lighting to supply the Geyser Hotel and surroundings is generated by the aid of these falls, for transmission at 4,000 volts.

This concluded quite a wonderful day's entertainment and the sights, if they had not been actually seen, would be really beyond the human imagination.