TONGARIRO.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13745, 7 September 1908, Page 8

TONGARIRO.

SCENERY AND LEGENDS

j Taranaki people are mostly content !to admire the Tongariro group of mountains from a distance. Few realise the wealth of scenery that belongs to those snowy peaks and ranges. In his report to Parliament on his botanical survey of the Tongariro National Park, Dtf. Cockayne says it is hardly going too far to declare that the scenery there is, more varied than that of any equal area of land in th«Dominion. There are to be found tho only glaciers in the North Island, volcanic activity, great forests, weird deserts, and river gorges of great depth. He thinks the park will year by year increase in importance as a resort not only for tourists but for our own people. The high altitudes, the dry, bracing air, the interesting sights, make it especially attractive to those requiring a complete change- from the bustle of city life. Very interesting nre the Maori legends of this part of the Dominion. There was, according to Maori tradition, originally a third great volcano there, Taranaki by name. Taranaki attempted to abduct Pihanga, the wife of his friend Tongariro, and a fierce conflict ensued, which ended in Taranaki flying westward until he came to rest near the sea, where we now knt^n him as Egmont. In his flight he tore up the ground, making the deep channel through which the Wanganui now flows.

VerY romantic is the Maori explanation of the coming of subterranean firo to the Taupo region. A certain Maori chieftain, soon after arriving in -thr country in the canoe Arawa, set out southwards on a tour of exploration, and arrived at a high mountain, which, like a true explorer, he determined to climb. Its snows, however, were ton much for* the adventurer from tinwarm north, so he called to bis sisters at Whakari, the steaming island in the Bay of Plenty, to send him firo. Two taniwhas brought the firo by a subterranean passage, but arrived too late to save the life of Ngauruhoe, the chief's devoted slave, who had perishni from tho cold, and after whom the mountain was named. In this mountain, and in the underground passage, from which it hursts forth at various places, such as Rotorua and Taupo, the fire still burns.