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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 62

Lake Rotorua

Lake Rotorua.

We must now proceed from the township on Lake Taupo by coach to Ohinemutu, on Lake Rotorua; the distance is about fifty miles. The road for the first twenty miles is over plains and mountains, which are page 59 generally covered with timber, exhibiting the usually dark green foliage of the country. We then arrive at Ateamuri, where we cross the Waikato River at a point where the stream rushes foaming and booming through a somewhat narrow defile, forming a series of rapids and cataracts. Climbing up from this point of interest, we soon come in sight of the rugged crags of Horo Horo, a rocky mountain 2,800 feet high, which claims our attention as we gradually approach. There is a slender crag on its sides, which resembles the female form divine mantled, and said by the Maories to be the form of the goddess Hinemoa. Before sundown we arrive on the shores of Lake Rotorua, and take up our quarters at one of the excellent hotels in the little township of Ohinemutu.

Before partaking of our dinner we are advised, as we have an hour to spare, to go clown to the Sanatorium and have a swim in the lovely Blue Bath, to which we proceed and regale ourselves in the luxury of a dive into its clear and truly blue waters, so warm and refreshing after our dusty ride on the coach. Having amused ourselves sufficiently we take the cold shower, and return quite ready for our inner refreshment. In the evening the hotel is filled with numerous Maories and would-be guides, all anxious to conduct the tourist to any of the wonders which the district supplies. Making up our minds and arranging our party for the scene of the great volcanic upheaval, we retire early to sleep and to rest. Early next morning we are astir, and hastily taking our breakfast we mount cur horses, and accompanied by our guide take a smart gallop past the Sanatorium; drawing rein as we approach the cemetery, we alight to view the monument erected to the memory of young Bainbridge, who met his death so heroically, and with such Christian fortitude on the terrible night which proved so disastrous to many. We pass through the once beautiful Tiki-tapu Bush which looks so forlorn midst the superincumbent weight of the now solid mud. Arrived at