No. XI. THE BAYS OF ROTOITI.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 13, 28 September 1910, Page 49

No. XI. THE BAYS OF ROTOITI.

ICHLY blue, with softly wooded IWF shores that wind in and out Ik in all sorts of little headlands A and snug little white-beached ba'ys, Rotoiti is by a long way the most beautiful of the many lakes in the Rotorua country. Nor yit so small a sheet of water as the name, ’’Little-Lake,” in full ‘’The L i 111 e-Lake-Disco v e r e d - by - lhenga”—would suggest. It is nine •jniles long, and from one to three or four miles wide, and it can work itself into quite a stormy sea when the squally ‘’maningai” sweeps down upon it. But for the most part it lies smooth ami glassy and unruffled, a delightful picture of repose, stretching away there between its out-jutting little mountain-capes. Its ■dovetailing headlands shut out a view of -the whole lake from most parts, and this was why, 1 suppose, that lhenga—who named it after himself, though he was •bv no means the first to discover it—called it the Little Lake. By far the finest scenery on Boioiti’s shores is to he found on its northern side. Scenery, too. heightened hi interest •by the local folk-talk. But this treasury -of song anti story is not known to the pakeha tourist who cruises round these lovely shores by oil-launch; -ami only a few of the old-time place-names have been placed on the maps. Some of us have collected a little of the ancient legendary lore, but most of it has gone, to the Ri inga with the tattooed tohungas of Ng a l i-l’ikia o. Yet, let us take boat along these northern shores and >ee what we can of the olden haunts of the nearly-vanished race, who once had their stockaded villages on every headland and in every bay. Pulling out from the beautiful willowshaded Taheke arm. at the western end of Rotoiti—not far from the g'Okere Falls electrical power-station, Kiri ami I hoist sail and square away eastward as soon as we clear the Atua-rere-tahi Hill, and with a light westerly breeze filling our spritsail we cruise leisurely along close in shore, inspecting (‘very bay. We have made an early start, and we reckon to make the little village of the ’’Sounding-Kootstepx." at the eastern end of the lake, well before fall of night. Away to our right, on the southern side of the lake, the white cl i fl’-face of famous old Alotu-tawa is shining like chalk in the sun. It is the lakeward face of an island-like headland, a hillfort of other days. Over that precipice many a Maori has gone to death: it was a “suicide-clifl‘,” like that classic cape from which “burning Sapho” leaped in -the brave Greek days. And there is a song, the’ chieftaine-.s Tikawe’s pathetic lament, (banted on the hill-top before she threw herself on to the rocks far below but the story and the song must wait, for the ilorthern shores claim present attention. Soon, skirting a richlv-foliaged coastline. we reach Kopakorahi Point, and the entrance to a splendidly sheltered bay is •revealed, a narrow rock-walled harbour gate, with a calm little haven rounding •out within like a horse-shoe. A great white rock, a.s smooth as if worked by human agency, rises from the water on the fare of the eastern point (rightband side). It is Ilinekura'.s Rock. A smaller rock, half-submerged, on tin* opposite headland is called Te-kuri a-Te Roi (Te Roi’s Dog). Topping the shrubclad cliff are clumps of cabbage trees ;(whanake or ti), that usually mark the bite of an ancient village or pa: this pa is Pukurahi, a one-time celebrated fcold of the Ngati-Te Takinga tribe. Entering the bay, which is called Wai-iti, a little grassy slope is .seen on the right; landing, a track is found, the olden rock/

path to the trenched and parapeted village. Curious Store-houses. Here there are some remarkable ancient artificial cave.s, cut out of the rocky overhanging hillside, just beneath the pa. These are rua-kumara. or caves for the storage of the sweet potato. In the old days, when Maori ha pus inhabited this lake-fort, these ruas were excellent storehouses for the kuniara; they were dry and well protected from wind and weather. They formerly had wooden doors made of adzed planks, closing their narrow' window-like entrances. but now only the grooves in the rock remain to show where these doors were fitted. There are eleven of these stonecarved ruas under the cliff of Pukurahi. (limbing to the hilltop, where the tui’s song is heard in the trees, the advantages of Pukurahi as a fortified hold become clear. The hill-fort on its rocky point commanded a view of all canoes passing up or down the lake, and it was practically unassailable on three of its sides: and on its northern side was the beautiful little bay of refuge for its canoe-fleet, ami gentle hill-.-lopes for the food cultivations. The bay, again, contained its fortresses, for on a long peninsula which is practically an island — and divides the bay into two equal parts—there are two little steep sided hills, each of which bears the marks of 1 reach and parapet. This island-penin-sula is called Te Weta; it was one of the. strongholds of the Tohourangi tribe two hundred years ago, and later on of their conquerors, the Ngati-Pikiao tribe, of which Ngati te-Takinga was a hapu, or sub-tribe. Sailing on eastwards from Pukurahi, where the pohutukawa wreathe their huge old twisted roots about the rocky cliffs, and extend their long arms over the water, we pass a little island sitting in the lake a short distance from the mainland, and so thickly covered ■with pohutukawa, whan, and tawhero trees, and with tall flax and the familiar ii-palm, that it is one mass of foliage to the water. This is Motu-mauri; though so tiuy, it was a pa in the olden time, and was defended with a stockade. There is a cave en the shore of the islet, where, says tradition, a number of the inhabitants once hid themselves, and so escaped slaughter when the place was assaulted and captured by an enemy’s canoe-fleet. This cave faces the north-west; it is called Marupiuiganui, after a remote ancestor of the Ara W il tribe. A ’ Deserted Village.” The next indentation in the beautiful coastline is the pretty bay of Otaramarae, another calm and sheltered retreat, once the haven for populous Maori hapus, wlios-e remnants live in a few old w ha res by the waterside. The bay opens out as our boat round- the high wooded point of Kahuwera ; on tin* summit of this green and t ingled hill are the remains of a fort of comparatively recent times, held by Pokiha Taraiini. Waata Taranui, Te Rangapia. Matone te lluaki, and To Rangihoro, and their men of Ngati Pikiao during the llauhau wars of 1864-70, when the Ara was were nearly all in the field on the side of the Government. A tiny islet, detached from the mainland, rises from the smooth waters below the olden hill-fort. (lose by there once stood, say the Maoris, a great pohutukawa tree, which leaned out over the bay so invitingly that it was adzed and carved into a “moari,” or diving tree, with flax ropes attached to its head; these ropes were used as swings by the young people when they came down to the lakeside for the diving ami swimming games that were the favourite sports of these water-loving children of Geyserland. The

broken-down hamlets on the inner sweep of Otaramarae are a melancholy picture of decay and uf the decline of a once vigorous warrior race. One or two old women came out to cry a “liaeremai!” to us, and squat on the beach until our boat was out of sight agnin: an old and battered eanoe, half full o' water, lies partly drawn up on the beach beneath a weeping willow tree. One picturesque Tilth spot is the tiny kainga of Puke-aruhe (’’Fern-root Hill”), a little eastward along the beach from the cluster of whares known as Otaramarae; a few raupo huts of the ancient pattern gleam red and brown from the fiuit groves and the willows. Rounding out of the bay. we sail past the sparkling white sandy beach of Te Mourea, then a bold rock cliff lifting steeply from the blue-black waters, ferns and shrubs climbing to it- grey old face, and knotty rooted pohutukawa trees waving their twisted arms on the edge of the bluff above. A Storied, Tree. \ ery soon Ohoukaka Ba\ is reached. This is one of the most beautiful bays of all Rotoiti. Just before its narrow entrance is opened up. one will notice if he has a well informed Maoi i coni panion to point it out to him a vener able pohutukawa. conspicuous bccau-c of its size, overhanging the clitt-top. This tree is celebrate-n in Rotoiti legend. It is called ’’Tapuae,” and is one of those lakeside trees Known as ”tohuliau,*’ or •’wind-omens.” 'I he old Maoris say it was a “singing-tree,” and that the sound made by its branches in the wind enabled the people living in the neighbouring pa to forecast t’ne weather. If its branches sang a gentle ”Mu-mu, mu-mu,” like the murmuring of a ugaro. or fly. everything was calm, and the lake would be smooth for canoeing and fishing. If it began to make a whistling sound, even though the wind were not high, it was a sign of an approaching marangai, a strong wind from the north east, generalh with lain; and if its cr\ rose to a shrill scream, its branches creaking an I rubbing against each other, then pre.-ently a heavy gale of wind would burst on the lake, and canoes had best keep to the beach. And a bit of lake war history, too, hangs to the limbs of that gale-battered old tree. A hundred and fifty years ago s -me of the Tuhourangi tribe (whose descendants now live at Whakarewarewa) occupied Ohoukaka; their trenched and para peted pa Kakanui crow tied the cliffs here, where the ancient tree “Tapuae” stands. With them, married to one of their chiefs, lived a young woman from the Ngati-Pikiao tribe, who owned the eastein end of the lake: she was a sister of the chief Te Rangi-wawabia. Some insult offered to this woman in the pa came to the ears of Te Rangiw a wahia, who, being very touchy on points of family and tribal honour, as all Maoris are, determined on revenge. Knowing ithe strength of the Kakanui fort, he resolvt‘l on strategic methods instead of a direct and open assault. Being a “taha-rua,” that is. related to both sides, he was at liberty to vi-it the pa, although his tribe were freipiently al war with Tuhourangi. First raising a war parly of Ngati-Pikiao and Wailaha men, and giving them certain instructions, he set off with a few men in his ow n canoe, an I reaching tin* pa. went to his si-Jer's whare. until the time came to act. Thai night the war-eanoes «»f Ngati-Pikiao and Waitaha paddled up the lake from Tap-uac-haruru, at the (‘astern end, and '.c number of the warriors quietly landed and hid themselves amongst the shrubs and rocks at the foot of the K ikanui cliff. ’I he canoe fleet anchored off the front of the pa, and in the early morning the warriors routed the Tuhourangi with their loud darning ami singing of songs ami their shout', of challenge ami defiance. A number of the pa garrison rushed down to their war canoes, which were kepi in the little bay of Ohoukaka. and paddling out into the open lake, they attacked the invaders with spear and Avar-axe. ami there W’a<« a lively little naval battle. Mean while, under cover of the darkness, Te Rangiwa wahia had securely fastened a strong knotted flax rope to the tree “Tapuae” on the edge of the cliff, and dropjM'd the end to the water edge below, where his men lay in am bush. When the canoe combat was at its height, in the dim and early morning, Te Rangi took post by the tree, an I cried in a loud voice his “ Wlmkaaraarapa ” —a term usually applied to a sentinel's watch song so that his men. who Were intently listening below, might

know it was time to hup to action. 1 iii was the cry of “ The sky-t’lrft tipcn”: M ika tonu in-’i. *l'ika tonu mai. Kia ahau c nuho nd! Tika tonu mai! 1 a ha ha!“ (•‘(’nine straight this way. Straight towards me, To tile spot where I now stand. Straight this wax Ha. ha!“> At the word, his one by one •warmed up the rope to the »'.H p and found their leader there, and then they that th‘ir comrades ar.d the wara.iHot'i, were gaining th' water lichi, ami were pursuing the Tuhourangi men into the bay. Willi club ami battle axe and sharp manuka -pear. ” I’he Skv Clef; Open” led his men against the wurrioiß who had remained in the pa. I’he Tu huutangi. intent on repelling the canoe men on tin* beach below, were thrown into confusion by this unexpected attack delivered in their very midst. \s-ail. d furiously on two sides they weie soon completely defeated: many were killed, ami many a body was cut up tor t n cannibal feast; and Te Rangi wawahi • carried his sister away with him to li r old home up the lake. The in-ult ha I been pxiid for in blood, ami the u‘. u was co npb te. Ohoukaka Bay has a narrow e .iramr between fine wooded vlilT-s; on the pein* on the left hand as the bay is <nte’.< I where the trees dip their thirsty Lranc'u*so low that they touch the water, cu e stood Te Ari Kainga, a v’llage of the ancient Lak« , -people. \ ery drop an I almost black in colour is the water un der those bush-clad clifl’s, v’dilened in midsummer with the blazng blo-som< of the pohutukawa, ami variegated in golden patches with the bright foliage el the kohekohe. The whan and wbara'c are two other ornamental components of the foliage scheme; ami a pakeha in TALKS OF ROTORLT TWO trader ldos>onis in the wilds, for then are groves of cherry trees on the bu-h\ hill-slope, eo\ < red with fruit al ( hr; mas time. lhenga His Kuri.” Now w<• are on historic ground iga:n, for vonder little beach, on tin* east i*i side of Ohoukaka, is the -pot when lhenga. the Arawa explorer, first saw the waters of this lake, ti\\* <•< atur eago. Just round tin- point to the c ; ; is Te Ruaki o te-kuri a I le.mga. a ba\ name which holds a story in it-elf. it was so named because here lhenga s d > •. which had run along in advance of the bush Cxplorer, ami had while swimming in the waters of this bay eaten some of the inanga, or whitebait, with which its waters swarmed, returned to itmast(*r, ami disgorged some ot the white bait before him; it was this that ga\» lhenga tin* first intimation that some fish-abounding sheet of water was close by. Coasting along eastward from Te Ruaki, the cliff and woodland .scenery becomes finer still. 'l’he rocky heights’ rising from the deep blue black walers are. almost everywhere com cak'd ironi xiew by a profusion of foliage of every tint of green, with here an I there the white and crim-on splasher oi will flowers. The pohutukawa assume the most varied and piciure-«|ue shape-, and stretch their twisted limbs far out over the water, laves run in between Ihe rocky ]»oints, ami huge old mossy rocks, often tree crowned, stand islanded, with mysterious little channels, inviting exploration, running between them and the cliff, arched over by the an ent A -mall tree which grows plonlifnlh higher up on these beautifully wooded -holes is the tavhiri (Bittosporum ti'iiuifolium). It was valued by the Maoris because of the fi igrant re.in which it yielded, a gum vailed by them hinu. or oil. The tree was lamed at certain seasons, hnd the gum which flowed out of the cut- was collected ami Used in making tattooing dye, and also as one of the ingredients of tin' mm h prized perfume sometimes worn in a little neck satchel by the girl-. The Woods o£ Pararaki. A long fore-led point, W’hangaikorca, stretches out into the lake. Rounding this, we are in I'araraki Bay, where the chores arc one magnificent green wall of forest and fern. The dark blue water is a perfect mirror on a calm day, and the fern-trees that -oflly brush th ir fan-fronds to ami fro, ami all Ihe forest foliage of the heights find pertect reflex LU the deep xailin lake. The num.iki

fern-tree here grows in whole groves, leaning out from the precipitous shores, half in sunshine, half in deep shadow. Tiny runnels of water moisten the cliffs, and where the rocky walls are not hidden in foliage, they are furred and jewelled with soft rich-hued mosses and little clinging ferns. In this deep bay, close under the cliffs, there is said to be a “ripo,” or whirlpool, indicating the place where the waters of this part of the lake find a subterranean exit, flowing out northwards beneath the range, and bursting up to the light again as the headwaters of the Pongakawa River, which flows into the Bay of Plenty. This “ripo” is said to be only noticeable when the lake is low. ■Confirmation of the Maori theory as to the subterranean outflow is found in the fact that the Pongakawa has its source only about a mile away from Pararaki, just across the range; it springs suddenly from the rocks at a place called Pari-Whaiti (“Narrow Cliffs”). There is believed to be a similar hidden outflow from Lake Rotoehu.

Now we are close under the loftyforested cliffs of Matawhaura, NgatiPikiao’s sacred burial-mountain, towering eight hundred feet above the lake. We down sail and steer along the dark base of this mighty wooded wall, so close as almost to touch the rocks with an oar, and presently we round up into the fine sweeping bay at the lake end, and beach our boat on the white sands of Tapuae-haruru, the place of “The Sounding Footsteps.”