ROTORUA AFTER THE ERUPTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 7947, 2 December 1886, Page 5

ROTORUA AFTER THE ERUPTION.

(from a correspondent.)

Rotorua and Ohinemutu are as pleasant and attractive as ever. The slight rise in the Rotorua Lake does nut interfere with the prospect or with the amusement of visitors. The Priest’s and the Rachel baths are available for the seekers after health and beauty as of yore. The grand new bath (named the Blue Bath), which is 60ft x 20ft, and 4ft Cin deep, is most luxurious. Whakarewarowageysers are very active, and the bathing there is as good as ever. Rotorua Lake has assumed a milky white hue, due to the volcanic mud washing off the neighboring ranges. Rotorua will continue to be as attractive as ever to the pleasure-seeker and the invalid. The fears of the resi- ( dents, due to the recent eruptions at ( Tarawora, have subsided. Their terror - seems to have been chiefly caused by the ( view of the outburst some 15 miles dis- \ tant, as the earthquakes which occurred | then, /* and since, were but slight, ( and were not so heavy as are I often experienced in Wellington and i on the West Coast. ; Although Ro- 1 torua ia practically uninjured, all of j the great attractions of the neighborhood have gone. Rotomahana and theTerracea have disappeared, their site is in space ; • at a lower level, some 250 feet below the , ancient Rotomahana, a new series of lakes, yet unnamed, are forming, We took horses from Ohinemutu and rode to ; Tikitapu Like, no longer blue and , crystal, but turbid and grey, the bush 1 destroyed, all vegetation buried, the ; track cut up by chasms and watercourses, and desolation everywhere. At Tikitapu we left our horses and took to ' our legs. The grey mud with which the country there is covered, sheds the rain like a roof. During rains the valleys and depressions are water-courses, the sudden shed of water cutting into the older formations swiftly and destructively, and making large chasms and ruts and bringing down huge slips into the lakes and on to the flats ; all the roads in - the valleys become river-beds, while on the sidelines they are cut transversely with ruts and chasms from a few inches to : many feet in width and depth. At Wairoa wa camped for the night.in a part of one of the old hotels, which is undisturbed. Wairoa must be seen to understand the ruin which has occurred. A few English trees and shrubs sticking out of the now hard deep mud are sending out some green leaves ; nothing else of life seems extant. The bush and scrub .which stand have all the bark thrashed off on the windward aide ; the thorns oi the hawthorns bushes ace smashed into fibre. , Whatkilled the bush was the fine cinders falling with the mud, driven by the furious gale induced by the eruptions, which out like a sand-blast. We were rowed across Tarawera Lake by the Warbriok brothers, who have built and launched a capacious _ whaleboat for the purpose of carrying visitors to see the Tarawera mountains and the Rotomahana volcanoes. Several ladies had preceded us on this trip, which, though tiring, is not at all overpowering to the active and strong. We Lauded at the foot of Tarawera Mountain, opposite Te Ariki, now buried, and at once- ascended the mountain with our guide, Warbriok, who led cjs to the summit of the newly-formed cone, after a somewhat heavy climb. From this summit wo looked down into the .crater on Tarawera, which has a cylindrical hole at the bottom of unknown depth ; a little vapor was arising from it, and the sulphur fumes wore rather strong. We did not go on to Ruawahia, as our time was short; but this has also, we were told, a crater in it. ..The Tarawera crater is separated from the great rift which begins on the mountain ; one side of the mountain, indeed, is blown out. Wo looked down into this rift from the mountain, extending across the old Rotomahana and onward to the vicinity of thaOkaro Lake, which wo could see for about seven or eight miles. Yery little steam was rising from this rift. A series, of turbid and variously-colored lakes is rapidly forming, commencing at the mountain and . tenuinatiug buyond the old site qf Kotomahaua, where we guessed the terraces formerly stood. Viewed from the mountain now, these seem to be large steam and mudholes. The ley els of the new lakes are all far below that of Tarawera. Perhaps as the rainfall accumulates these will rise to the level.of Tarawera, and forma long narrow lake, occupying the great-volcanic rift ; while steam-holes, hot springs, and geysers will form along the sides, and furnish new terraces and new wonders fur future generations to admire. The old Rotomahana and its terraces and mudholes, its geysers and opal waters, kouras, canoes, creeks, bush,' ferns, and all its wonders, areLJown into space ; but the recollection of, many pleasant and happy days spent there will remain with some of us while we lament that they can come again no more. - A visit to Tarawera is most interesting, and the scene wonderful, but the old beauties have departed.