OUR HOMELAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR HOMELAND.

BY ELSIB K. &lOETON.

WONDERS OF GEYSERLAND. THE TRAGEDY OF WAIMANGU. (No. 5.) The voyagers landed on the shores of Lake Rotomahana, at the foot of Waimangu Valley, and started to climb up the narrow track that leads to the top of the cliffs overlooking the great geyser. Close beside the track a boiling stream dashed down to the lake. Desoito the uncanny surroundings the scene was one of deep interest. The hillsides and "cliffs, stark and bare beneath their deep pall of whitish-grey mud and volcanic ash, were streaked with splashes of colour, and waving toi-toi plumes and delicate ferns and mosses on the banks of the little creek added a touch of beauty to the scene. On every side the awful devastation of the eruption was made manifest. At the foot of the hills lay Lake Rotomahana, blue as melted turquoise, with its steaming cliffs and desolate surrounding hills. Out beyond the lake rose Tarawera Mountain, with the great red gash in its side clearly visible, and beneath the rugged cliffs to the right lay the valley of the extinct geyser. As the voyagers toiled up the narrow track, the guide told Pixie and Pat the story of that giant of geysers-, Waimangu, " Black Water," discovered in 1900 by a noted Aucklander, Mr. Humphrey Haines, on one of his tours of exploration through Geyserland. . . " Other geysers sent up fountains of snowy water and steam, continued the guide, " but Waimangu was fierce, dark, and terrible. His shots were black, muddv water, rocks and mud, and poisonous vapours. Nowhere in all the world was there so sinister and awe-inspiring a sight as Waimangu in action in the.four years following his discovery, when ho frequently hurled volumes of daik watei and mud a thousand feet in the air." " Did it play often ?" asked Pat. "Yes, during those four years, it bccamo the most famous sight of all Geyserland, and tourists came from all over the world to see the great geysei. It was constantly in eruption, and an accommodation house was built for the benefit of tourists who wished to stay and Watch for a record shot. In 190 , howover, a dreadful tragedy occurred. If you come a little farther along the track you will see what happened." The party moved on until they were opposite the steaming inferno in the valley of death and desolation that marks the site of Waimangu. From tho floor of the'valley rose a great rocky cliff, streaked with strange, rich volcanic colouring. "That is Gibraltar Rock," said tho guide, " and that mass of steam and mud below.- was once a mossy flat, with a track running across it _ called 'Frying Pan Flat,' Beneath Gibralter Rock lay the crater of Waimangu In August, 1903, a party of tourists was standing on one of tho slopes looking down into the crater when it suddenly burst into eruption and swept four of them to a horrible death! It is said that tho guide warned the party to retire, but one was anxious to secure a photograph, and not realising the danger, the party did not obey promptly, and paid for their trepidation with their lives Shortly after that Waimangu became quiescent, and it was not until 1915 that the next biff eruption took place. In that year Frying Pan Flat blew up, and the land across which tourists had walked became a horrible pit of boiling mud. " I hope," said Pixie, with a shudder, " that was the end of Waimangu. "Many people thought it was," said the guide, "but Nature works in slow and terrible ways. It was only, two years after the blowing up of Frying Part Flat that Waimangu sprang to life once more m the most appalling eruption of all, in which the accommodation house at the top of tho hill was destroyed, and the guide's wife and little child killed! Here are the ruins of the houso—you can see far yourselves the awful work of Waimangu. " Is it quite dead ?" asked Pat, in awe-stricken tones, looking with fascinated interest toward tho sinister, steaming pit that is the crater of Waimungu. "Who knows?" responded the guide. "This is Geyserland, treacherous, uncanny, often terrible. ... No man can say anything is dead where the forces' of Nature are still working furiously, night and day, beneath the very "round we tread on. Waimangu has been quiet now, save for occasional periods of semi-activity for eleven years, but terrible lessons of the past serve to warn us that tho giant is only sleeping."