OUR HOMELAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20130, 15 December 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR HOMELAND.

8T ELSIB K. MORTON. ' HjJ

A TRIP TO TAUPO. Over the bracken-covered hills of Wairakoi, with their dark-green, self-sown pines rising sharp-cut against the expanso of tawny brown, the Silver Piano took its Way to Taupo, four miles from Wairakoi and tho Valley of Wonders. Tho air was beautifully clear, and fifty miles away gleamed tho snowy crests of the mountain kings of tho North Island—Ruapohu, Ngaruahoo, and Tongariro. From the funnel-shaped cono of Ngaruahoo camo wliisps of steam, curling up like a soft whito ribbon into the bluo sky. Tho Waikato River trailed its placid way down through the hills and valleys, its shining surfaco broken in a foaming, snowy welter beneath the rugged cliff's of the Huka and Aratiatia Rapids. Thon a sheet of gold lay down tho landscapo, and Pixie and Pat saw for tho first time tho glory of tho golden broom of Taupo. The Silver Plane came to rest near a pictursque littlo group of buildings, Tho Spa, beneath encircling hills. " Is there anything to see hero ?" asked Pat, who was quite certain that nothing in all tho world was worthy to compare with the wonders of Wairakei's Geysor Valley. Tho guide led his littlo charges up tho hill, and along a shady track where the cicadas were already chanting loudly tho song of summer. Presently tho track led down the hill to a wide grassy space on the shallow banks of the Waikato. On tho opposite sido of tho river, clear and green as sunlit emerald, was a kovvhai treo in bloom, and feathery manuka sprays blossomed beside the quiet waters. Good gracious! What's this funny looking mound ?" cried Prixe, running to a rocky formation that ross about ten feet high among the tall grass on tho rivorbank. "Isit a gayser?" Tho famous Crows' Nest Geyser," said tho guide. " You can climb up and have a look down its throat, and thon you must come over hero out of danger. It may start playing any momont." With curiosity unsated by the wonders they had already soon, tho children climbed tho rocky sido of the Crows' Nest, and peered down tho dark, stoamy walls into the depths beneath. A deep-down rumbling sent them scurrying off to safety, and a few moments later, tho Crows' Nest sent up a magnificent column of steam and boiling wator that shone like a glittering fountain against the dark green back ground of trees and river. Closo by, on tho banks of tho river, was another geyser, Wai-piki-rangi, "Sky-climbing Water," but tho guido told them that tho river wa3 running high, and its cold waters had temporarily flooded tho geysor and put it out of action. Thon followed a ramble through tho manuka groves besido tho river, where many of tho wonders of Wairakei were repeated on a smaller scale. Here were boiling springs closo besido tho river, in which tho Maoris cooked the trout they had just pulled up out of the river, and closo by were steaming waterfalls, and dark, sinister cauldrons, whence camo awesome grunts, and muttering like tho growling of a giant imprisoned in thoso grim depths. A littlo farther on wore mud-pools, pink and cream and primrose-tinted, with delicate ferns, glistening with diamond drops, growing luxuriantly at the edgo of tho littlo track through tho tea-tree. " If 1 hadn't soon Wiarnkei," remarked Pat, as they took their seats once moro in tho Silver Plane," I would certainly think Taupo tho most wonderful place I had ever seen." " All Geyserland is wonderful," said the guide. " Naturo has repeated her marvels over and over again. It is only when one has visited all theso places that tho wonder and beauty of them can bo fullv appreciated. And now, hero is tho great lako, Taupo, tho source of Waikato. Wo arc going across to Tokaanu, on tho other side."