Sir Walter Buller's Bird Sanctuary.

The Papaitonga estate was formerly the property of the late Sir Walter Buller, author of “The Birds of New Zealand.” He made the lake and its shores a sanctuary for native birds, and in his day bird life was very abundant on the quiet waters, where (except on very rare occasions) never a gun was heard.

There is a Maori village, a small Kainga called Muhonoa, about half a mile from the lake on the seaward side. The few inhabitants are of the Ngati-Raukawa Tribe.

Names of beauty—Papaitonga and Waiwiri. The former is said by the Maoris to be properly the name of the larger island in the lake, and Waiwiri applies to both lake and outlet stream. Papaitonga means “Beauty of the South”; Waiwiri means “Trembling Waters.”

Among the olden folk the lake was celebrated for the exceeding abundance of its waterfowl life and the other foods, such as eels and kakahi or fresh-water shellfish. Also, it was renowned for its beauty; the Maori, for all his practical side, could appreciate the poetry and the hallowed air of this glimmering water-sheet hidden in the forest, with the ferntrees bending over its bays and the raupo gently swishing in the breeze.