"THE NATURAL WONDERS OF NEW ZEALAND."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6213, 15 October 1881, Page 6

"THE NATURAL WONDERS OF NEW ZEALAND."

A second and much improved edition has been issued of a book published some time ago by Mr. G. T. Chapman, entitled, "The Natural Wonders of New Zealand (the Wonderland of the Pacific) ; its Boiling Lakes, Steam Holes, Mud Volcanoes, Sulphur Baths, Medicinal Springs, and Burning Mountains, with a supplement by W. A. Ellis." With the pacification of the interior of the country, enabling tourists to traverse the land from Rotoiti to Taupo without fear of meeting Te Kooti or any other hostile native —with the increasing populousness of the country—with the improvement of the means of transit over the world—the strange and beautiful district in the interior of this island must be visited more and more. Those are born who will see it one of the chief resorts for health in the whole world, visited by thousands every year for the exquisite salubrity of its climate and the health-giving virtues of its natural baths and mineral springs. Chapman's Guide-book, a second edition of which, in neat and handy form, has just been issued, will for a long time to come be the tourist's vade mccum, wherein he can read how to get to the Lake country, the history of the native wars in Waikato and at Tauranga, descriptions of the foreft scenery between Tauranga and Rotorua, and of all the famous springs and waterfalls, volcanoes and fountains, and solfataras and fumaroles, which may be seen. We quote a few short passages to show the style of the descriptive portions of the book. I.AKK TIKITAITJ. This is a small sheet of intensely blue water about a mile long, of triangular shape. It is closed in between steep, partly-wooded heights. The hills rising from its northern and western banks, clothed with magnificent forests, cast a strong shadow on its deep blue waters. Such a change, aud so sudden, from the boiling water and mud fountains, with their strong smells, makes one fancy that he has just arrived in a different country altogether. This lake has no visible outlet. Several old Maori legends are recorded of this pretty lake, one of them being the Saint George and Taniwha story of New Zealand, — a great combat between Tu-wharc-toa and a real dragon (Taniwha). It is faithfully recorded in our unpublished Sacred Book of Maori, how the monster was conquered after a tremendous engagement, and then sentenced to go to the bottom of the lake, there to remain for ever. When the wind comes sweeping down upon the water, raising white-fringed waves, the Maoris say the Taniwha is turning himself over.

THE PINK TERRACE. The Pink Terrace is the crowning glory of the Lake district; everything else fades into insignificance as you feast your eyes on this magnificent structure, —it is so wonderful, so grand, aud so gorgeous in workmanship. Examine it how you will, from a distance or with a microscope : you have the great terrace buttresses sufficiently large to form a bathing-place for an elephant, or a beautiful miniature tiny basin with the wdter just warm enough for a bath for a newly-born child.

Anything so exquisite as this Pink Terrace does not exist in nature. The artificial marble-like steps, fringed with shrubs, ascend from the lake; and the platform, sixty feet above the lake, has a square of one hundred feet eacliwwa r , containing a number of basins three or four feet deep, full of transparent sky-blue water, with a temperature from 90° to 110° Fahr.; and in the background, shut in by half-naked walls tinged with various colours, red, white, and yellow, lies the great basin, a caldron forty or fifty feet iu diameter. This terrace possesses beauties quite uuique and peculiar to itself. The colours are more delicate, bleudiug into one another like the reflection of the rainbow on the sparkling waters. To complete the picture, let tho traveller indulge in a luxurious bath, and let him select a basin to his taste, for here lie can, as usual, have it at any temperature. The bather undresses on a piece of dry rock a few yards distant, and is in his bath in half a minute, without the chance of hurting his feet, for it is one of the properties of the stone flooring which has here been formed, that it does not hurt. In the bath, when you strike your chest against it, it is soft to tho touch ; you press yourself against it, and it is smooth ; you lie about upon it, and although it is firm, it gives to you ; you plunge against the sides, driving the water over with your body, but you do not bruise yourself ; you go from one bath to auother, trying the warmth of each. The water trickles from the one above to the one below, coming from the vast boiling pool at the top, and the lower, therefore, are less hot than the higher. From the terraces, ar-, you lie in the water, you look down upon the lake which is close beneath you, and over upon the green broken hills which come down upon the lake on the other side. The scene from tho bath in the Pink Terrace is by far the loveliest, and is luxuriously captivating, or, as Anthony Trollope feelingly puts it, 'it is a spot for intense sensual enjoyment.'

TADPO AND THE MOUNTAIN'S. The shores of the lake are uninteresting and dreary in the extreme, and the island of Motutaiko, near tho centre, has no beauty to recommend it to the eye of the artist. But if the sky is cloudless, it will rest with lingering gaze on the rare beauty of the snow-clad king of mountains, —Ruapehu and its graceful attendant Tongariro. Strangely fascinating is the mighty mass, standing up clear and distinct, with its white mantle glinting with a brightness almost painful. So clear is the atmosphere, and so sharp the outline of the mountain, that it looks close at hand ; and it is very difficult to realize that it is between sixty and seventy miles away. Its dark sister, Tongariro, is clothed in gloom, and, though twenty miles nearer, does not appear so distinct. On the right hand side of tho main cone steam may be observed, and also on the smaller cone on the right. These two mountains redeem the scene from being entirely commonplace. From all the rest the eye turns away in weariness ; but on these grand mountains it lingers long, especially if the tourist be up early enough to see the glory of the rising sun breaking in dazzling brightness over the broad expanse of glimmering snow. The lake is one thousand two hundred and fifty feet above the sea, and the air is clear, dry, and bracing, so much so, that the cold, which of course is greater than on the coast, is not felt so much, and the district is very healthy ; and only when the wind blows from the south it feels sharp, and bears on its airy atoms the cold biting breath of the distant South Island snow-fields.