EXCURSION TO THE GREAT BARRIER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10347, 23 January 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

EXCURSION TO THE GREAT BARRIER.

The excursion to the Great Barrier Island by the Northern Steamship Company's fine steamer tho Wakatere, on Saturday last, may be looked upon as the inaugural trip of a service presenting one of the most picturesque and interesting, outings within reach of the people of Auckland. Trips to the great island that shelters the entrances to our harbour from the rolling billows o"f- the Pacific have been made before, and will doubtless be made again, apart from the services of the Wakatore. But this beautiful and capacious steamer seems so expressly fitted for conducting excursions under the moso favourable conditions for passengerej that it will be a public boon to the city, if she is made the medium frequently of carrying tho people from the stifling heats and stenches of the city to a place so strange and weirdly picturesque as the Great Barrier, where they can have bhe ozone and the bracing breezes of the ocean to perfection.

Tho boon will be enhanced if this can be done on such terms aa will bring the trip within the reach of the thousands, as well as the tens, so that tho toil-worn workers, as well as the dilettante pleasure-seekers may bo brought within reach of a place that is in many ways singularly suited to be the great Sanatorium of Auckland.

Shortly after nine o'clock in the morning the Wakatere cast off from the wharf, some hundred passengers, with that " all-alive-oh" air that marks the intending tourist everywhere, giving animation to the deck, bub seeming only a sprinkling of people over the spacious promenade that stretches from end to end of the vessel. Light fleecy clouds overhead, and the fanning of a gentle zephyr hardly to be dignified with tho name of wind, gave the promise of an ideal day for a sea trip; but a number of ladies, from force of habit perhap3, or in deference to the laws of convention, had already laid themselves out on tho sofas below with an air of resignation that was touching, prepared to bear bravely the worst that could come. But as the motion of the ship throughout the entire trip was exactly us boisterous a3 while she was moored to the wharf, their feelings of pleasant anticipation of sea sickness must have resulted in disappointment. Waving the familiar route of the Rangitoto Channel, Captain Farquhar took his ship along by tho southern shores of Rangitoto and of Motutupu, where we had a glimpse in passing of tho pretty little white-tented encampment of tho lads of the orphans' school, who are keeping holiday on tho beach of Homo bay under the kindly and hospitable auspices of the Mes3rs Reid. Then we skirted Rakino

Island, were Mr. Sandford catches the smoked sclinapper, and steamed away out into tbo blue waters of the Hauraki Gulf, passing and sighting islands of every form and size, till we came under the towering heights of Cape Colville, round the point of which the island of our destination

loomed out of the haze. Gradually the rugged outline of the big island shaped itself to the eyo with its rocky coastline, and lofty wild-looking hills, and four hours after leaving tlio Auckland wharf we steamed into the pretty burbour of Tryphena at the south-western corner of the island.

Three or four hummocky rocks seem to stretch a sort of breakwater across the entrance to the harbour, the horizon to seaward being quite shut in by the lofty lowering mountain range of Cape Colvillo. The hills, or rather mountains, rise suddenly and to a considerable height around the harbour, giving it a sequostercd and picturesque appearance, as of a place to which one would think a man would wish to rotiro, if he had entirely done with the world and its ambitions and cares, and wanted to make up his soul for heaven. Pohutnkawa trees, with their dark green foliage, hang over all the rocUs on the foreshore, while ti-trees and other stunted shrubbery, with occasional patches of heavier timber, cover the hills to their tops, with here and there a little clearing, showing the hand of man. There is not much sign of settlement around the little harbour. Tlio residence of the chief man of the clis-

trict, and general representative of all official authority and influence, occupies a pretty eyrie-like position in a little nook at the top of a high bank or cliff overlooking the water. At the head of the harbour two or three other cottages near the beach seem to complete the residential settlement of the place. But to the right-hand side of the bay, and not far within the headland that shuts in tho entrance, there is a littlo white ruinod-looking cottage on the beach, on which the eyu3 of all the passengers are bent with a sombro interest. It has a blanched and weather-beaten look, part of it bus fallen down, and altogether it has a forsaken and desolate aspect that almO3t suggests that it had been blasted by fate, The mountain rises almost sheer up from behind tho walls; and a projecting headland covered with pohntukawas seems to shut it off from all other settlement on the harbour. It is such a lonely spot as one would think would never be visited by the turmoil and the passions of life. STeb within those tottering walls there was enacted tho most pitiful tragedy that ever startled the colony. For that desolate cottage was the homo of Mr. Taylor, the old man who was murdered by Caffroy and Penii, while defending his daughter from being carried away ; and in that little cove behind the tree-covered

headland lay at anchor the cutter in which the murderers fled to Australia, where thoy

were tracked by the messengers of justice and drought back to pay the penalty on the scaffold at Mount Eden. While we lay at anchor, several boats put off to the Wakatere", transacting the business of the little settlement with the noisy world without. In one of those manned by children, evidently out for fun, a number of young girls with their bright faces and vigorous frames, bore eloquent testimony to tho healthf illness of the place, and as lithe and graceful they balanced themselves on the thwarts and gunnel of the toraing wherry, and bandied merry badinage with some of the passengors whom they knew, one could not but think that there must bo as much of the light and the brightness of life in a quiet little world of their own like this, as is to be found among the crowded haunts of

After lying an hour at) anchor in this pretty little bay, we started for our next port of call. The coast ia all bluff and rook-bound, the land in the interior rising in places to very considerable elevation—in fact, one conspicuous mountain top about the middle of the island—Mount Hobson— is over 2000 feet in height, or more than double the height of Rangitoto. And here, as we are coasting aloug, we may ai? woll have n word about the appearance and the character of the Great Barrier Island. The length of the island is about 22 miles, the width ranges from 2§ to 12 mites, and it contains about) 72,000 acres, mostly mountains, nearly half of ic owned by the Barrier Company, three or four thousand acres still owned by the natives, aud the remainder equally divided between Crown lands and the homesteads of settlers, of whom there are about 40, the whole population of the island boing about 250. Besides the regular settlers there aro commonly about 40 or 50 gumdiggere. A large quantity of kauri timber has been taken away, and a large quantity remains, bub chiefly in the inaccessible parts, and there is stillacousiderable tradein firewood. There is very little flat land on the island, one piece of 200 acres on the eastern side constituting the only level land of any extent, with some other small patches here and there of arable land, chiefly near the coast, the rest being a jumble of the rug'gedest mountains. The southern half of the island is volcanic, and. there is a dfstincfc though extinct crater. The remains of thermal action are found in two or three boiling springs with temperatures .varying up to 184 degrees, strongly impregnated with minerals, and proved to have powerful curative properties for rheumatism and other ■ affections. These, springs aro situated near the centre of the island, , and are easily , accessible, and if these excursions- are only popularised, we shall yob hear a good deal of the Kaitoke.hot springs of the Great) Barrier.

The next porb of call after leaving Tryphena was Blind Bay, ft place deriving importance only from' the mineral lode 3 in its vicinity, now attracting considerable attention and soino population. There is bub little sign of settlement on this little inlet, two or three houses alone showing human residence. It ia an uninteresting looking little place, and the cold grey broken heights away up to tho left on entering, among and beyond which mining operations are being conducted, have all that harsh and ugly look that is uniformly characteristic of mining country. After about half-an-hour's stay in Blind Bay we passed further north, coasting alonjj a wildly picturesque country, with a bold frontage of rocks and cliffs, till sharply turning a projecting point we turned suddenly into a narrow passage, the entrance of Port Fitzroy. Along the stretch of water like a river, we could eee away in the distance the blue hazy outlines of lofty hills, but no description could convey an adequate idea of the beauty ot the scene surrounding us on every side. Fantastic, rocks corroded by ages of lashing of the waves, rose up to right and left, islands and rocky islets of every form and variety of beauty, hoinming in and interrupting the intricate navigation, the blua water, as still as a mill-pond, reflecting the dark pohutukawa trees that hung over from evety cliff that we passed. Few in Auckland realise the fact that hero within a few hours' steaming of their doors are water-ways that for charm of scenery equal anything that could bo found in the farfamed Sounds of the south-west coast of New Zealand, and constitute an attraction that if only known would draw crowds of tourists searching out the wonders of this Wonderland of the South Seas. After steadily winding our way through scenes, every one of them a frosli surprise of exquisite beauty, wo came at length into ,i comparatively wide basin of perfectly land-locked water, the lofty mountains rising up on one side sheer from the strand with a grandeur and a beauty that drew forth from many a spectator the remark that he had never seen anything so fair. Where wo had entered or in what direction we ehould find a passage out was equally concealed from view, and as the Wakutere ceased steaming in the centre of the harbour every oye feasted on the beautiful panorama surrounding. At last the vessel steamod ahead towards the further eide of the sheet of water, when a passage opened out, and through a channel equally picturesque, and varied in its countless boauties, we passed into the open sea. A sceno like this is one that lingere in the memory forever, and no one can form a conception of the matchless charms of tho Auckland waters till ho has passed through the harhourjof Port Fitzroy. The next place visited in our trip ia invested with a deeply-pathetic intorest to the peoplo of Auckland, and to many a sorrowing household far away in other lands. As we paused out through Port Abercrombie and steamed round a projecting headland, we aaw away in the distance tho frowning heights of Miners' Head, around the angle of which and on the further side was the sceno of the wreck of the Wairarapa. We did not prolong our voyage so far, but turned eharply round and steamed into Maori Bay, where the remains of a large number of the sufferere in that wild scene of horror and despair have been laid in their last resting-place. Near the head of the inlet, and off a Maori settlement; on the boaoh of some half-a-dozen houses, the Wakatero anchored, and the boats being lowered, the passengers wero landed at a littlo cove on tho righthand side of tho inlot. There is a little white strand at the base of lofty hills, and on a small terraco removed a little over high water mark the white palings of two little onclcisures main tho spot where tho dead are laid, Many heads wore uncovered, and tho subdued conversation of the visitors as wiuidetod around tho Kfctlo enclosures, showed that they realised the solemnity of tho sacred sceno. Thrco large mounds in ono enclosure, tind two in tho other, with sawn palings covered with numbei'3, aro the only distinguishing features separating thoao who, having passed together through that awful night of agony are hero laid to sleep sido by eido. Tho whole surroundings of thab eequestored littlo epob hemmed in by lofty hills, are in keeping with tho peacefulnesi of tho long still sleep that succeeded to the night of terror at the wrock, the pathetic memories of which were revived by our visit to this little "God's-acre" in Maori Bay. • The ringing of the ship's bell summoned tho stragglers aboard, and tho anchor boing weighed, tho ship's head was pointed to Auckland, some sixty miles away. With bright moonlight and a perfectly still sea, the passago was pleasantly and rapidly made, and a little aftor ten o'clock an excursion thab had been characterised by perfect enjoyment from first to last, in which there had not been a single mishap, and in which everything was done by the ship's company to promote the comfort and enjoyment of the passengers, was brought toa "closeat theQueon-streot Wharf,