A Lake of the Woods.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 26, 25 December 1912, Page 33

A Lake of the Woods.

Little- Waikare and Its Islands.

Written for the " Weekly Graphic " by

Haerere.

, . . • It doth seem A m ssy place, a Merlin's Hail, a .•ream: You know rlie clear Lake, and the in lit* Gle*. The iivunlaius l»'.v ... K -1’* w"'j IGH up ■ ▲ that swells in vast tumble- of I I limestone lan I from the eastern X / -eaboard t • t ie :’.rickly-w • »dcd canon's and crags of : ie I rewera < »untrv there lies a lon. lv little lake which for pure and profound -olitarim and sweet and unspoiled sylvan framing probably not equalled. certainly not sur pissed in any par*, of New Zealand: and this New Zealand is the land of lakes. It is well hidden, this lake of the woods that livts in my memory’s eve. Few Europeans see it. and the Ma »ris that live in the near-by mountains of the I'rewera very seldom visit it nowadays. though long ago they fought around its shorts and canoed across its gleaming waters. Its big m igblumr. Waikar -moana. is famous for its beauty, for it is a water-sneet that particularly lends itself to the camera-man’s art. But I iiave n»t yet >een a picture of my little lake that conveys anything like a satisfying idea of its charm. Very few photographers, in fact, have yet found it out. The camera-man. you will have noticed, is the slave of convention and hackneyd mi. He likes to work in the well-beaten paths. As. for instance. Rotorua. There are hundreds of beautiful pictures to be iia 1 within a compass of 2“ miles in any direction fr -ni K »t<»rua town: but the photographer has no; yet foun I them. To take one lake. Kotoiti. The material here for the camera is of infinite variety and loveliness. But the mechanical artist contents himself with one or two much-copied pictures, from points easy of reach, because the coach and the launch won’t wait, and he must get back to tea. Waikare-iti—“Little Rippling l-akc.” the Maoris name this lake of the wilderness Litt’e-Waikare. t • distinguish it from its sea-like sister. Waikare-moana, The S?a of Rippling Waters. It is but a baby size in lake- two miles and aquarter in length by a bare two miles in width. But it seemed much larger when I first >et eyes on its many-bayed shore, winding in an I out amongst the densely-bushed hills, an I the isles of cihn thit rose ike great :ree-gr »ve< fr im its s liet waters. Indee I it was as quiet as could lie. fresh an i I ively as it might have been a thousand years ag • No smoke - - .7. - ; . ha '-it ation of man stl on its coast. Everywhere the forest, lifting away in huge green-blue folds t » the heights that stood solemn and blue to the north. Here an 1 there a soft swathe of mist lay over a deep-set bay or a mountain gully: and ■•ver all the vast woods there lay a thin vest, most delicate gauzv veil, of summer haze. When afterwards I read a particular passage of Thoreau’s in his ** Week on the t oncord and Merrimac.*’ I thought at once of that Jay on Waikare-iti:—“The river has done its stint and appears not t • flow, but lie a: its length reflecting the light, and the haze over the woods is like the in in lible panting, or rather the gentle perspiration-. of resting Nature rising from a myriad of pores into the attenuated atmosphere.” The approach to Little-Waikare is exactly what it should be. You don’t see the lake until you are within a few yards of the -bores. - » securely do its forest- fence it in from the world. It lies something over 2i*»n»ft above the -e 1. an 1 may therefore be regarded a- a true mountain ’ike. It lies about three miles away ; »f W iikare-moina. u’rich i- «aw»ft lower, and into which the little bike discharge- its overflow waters by a beautiful co ‘ling -tream. the Aniwaniwa. — the •Rainbow’* -• named long ago becau-e. I suppose, of the rainbows which are to be seen in the sun-bathed spray of the waterfalls on its rapid course. There are four or five

waterfalls within a mile. Up to the foot of the lowest of these we boated from Waikare-moana: just behind it this will interest angler- there is a -plendid angling pool aboun ling in big rainbow trout. Near this fall we landed, and walked up through the

fore—t by a good and easy track to Waikare-iti. All around were the woods, all aroun I and arching over our lira Is. It was a hot summer day. but our way wa- cool and shady, a fragrant tunnel through the thickest forest, .ill nio--y and fern-fringed. Great rimu and rata and tawai tree- stretched their m —s-hung limbs over us: the tode.i -uperba, most graceful ami dainty of all New Zeal in i'- fern tribe, raised its drooping feather- on either side. and the t<»i. the mountain palm, brushed uwith leave- that were often eight ami nine inches in width. The toi is in its richest glory here. The forest is not a silent one. In manv parts of New

Zealand you may tramp the bush for milt's and not heir the voice of a bird. But here the tree* are lively with the -eremi of t'le kaka parrot an I the -ong • the kaka in greater numbei- lain n these woods of the Ureweri ( mntry an I Waik ire-iti. Su ld( nly the ' ike. framed like ■ Hire Intween the giant trunk- of the tree. Delightfully blue: a heiven-like - a breeze waving its crystal surface int • gentles: rippb-. I: ’ »ok* an cm- ’ inte l -pot. No >Jiioke of steamboat ye: de lib s its chirme i waters: n • n >isy m • ■. boat vexes that hallowed calm. < hie hope - : hey new er will. Sails • sinctuary. and a Maori can • gl : ling

' g inon.-e with a r of !»nme i-urab’e age and - »F:ar.nt>I here i- a rowing b.»at lying in the lit:!e -ilvei -anded bi\ Io our track end. We take il ami pull up and acio-- the like, exploring it- fairy islands. I'here are either six or seven of them. I forget which. Our Maori rompanioii. Ilurae Puketapu. a black beaided son of the u,»od- hi- tribe is Ng.itißuap.ini he hi- lived in the u • »d- of \\ aikare Moana ami canoed ovei its deep waters since hi- childhood tells u- the names of five of the i-laml- Motu ngaiaie “Lizard l-h*”i. Motutorotoro ■ 1-1. of the Wood- \ hie-” . Te Kahili. Te One-a Taliu (“I'a hu - Beieh" an I I'e Kahi-a I'uuai iun.ti - for Waterfowl” I. I"e Kahui i- the large-t. lying near the

western end of the lake; it is high, and covered from summit to water edge with forest and fernery jungle. Next to it is Te Kaha-a-Tuwai. and towards this rocky islet, rising steeply in its woods from the clear deep waters, our Maori guide steers ns. There was hardly a foot of rock visible for the green garment that draped the lone island and tell in out-bending boughs and tailing creepers and drooping ferns to the surface of the lake. We tied up the boat to a tree, and clambered up the rocky bank by an old track, bending under the low-sweeping branches of the rata and tawai and tawhero trees. Hurae had promised us a curious sight, and when we reached the island-top. about twenty-five feet above the lake, and only a few paces inland, we found that the whole inside of the islet was occupied bv a little lake. It was a strange place, th it lake within a lake. The tall forest shut it in on every side. The lake was a dark brown sheet of water: from its gloomy surface stumps of sunken trees protruded. The forest had an atmosphere of antiquity beyond description. The trees were very, very old: some of them leaned over the lakelet in curious, distorted shapes. From their ancient boughs hung long creepers and streamers of grey moss, drooping over the dark mystic waters like hoary Druidical beards. No breath of wind reached us here: no birds sang in the trees. The place Jay under a spell, as it seemed, a tit tine place for taniwhas and all manner of Maori dragons and forest ghosts and water wraiths. We did wir best to put some life into the ghostly little lake that very afternoon. we boiled our billy under the trees, and ate our lunch there: and the camp-

tire sent a pleasant home-like curl of blue smoke wreathing through the mossencrusted trees. We lay there, propping our backs against the knotty old tree boles, and we drank our hot bush tea with vast enjoyment, and wo smoked and yarned. “Ka pai, I\a pai!” said old

Hurae, “This is good, very good. This is the way to take the tapu oil’ the lake of the ghosts.” Puketapu told his stories of Waikareit i and Waikare-moana: titles of the days when Te Kooti and his Hauhaus trod these forests and bolted from

mountain to mountain to escape the Government forces. He was a box' those times, but he was old enough to accompany his father on some of the expeditions over this terribly rough country, and to take a paddle in tin* war-canoes on Wa ikaremoana. lit* was in the Tikitiki pa. a W aikare moana stronghold, in 1569. during the lighting around the lake: lit* saw Te Kooti's warriors swim their stolen horst- across the Strait of Manaia the nairowest part of the lake, connecting Wai ranmoana with the main part of tin* lake after their East (’oa.-d raids. He and his people accompanied T? Kooti right oxer the lliiiarau ILmge to Kuat ahum*. tin* heart of the I rewera Country. This lake. I.ilih* Waikare*. sai l Puketapu. xva- a great refuge-place of hi- tribe in the* ancient daxs of war. When his people*, the Ngati-Ruap.ini. weie wor-ted bv invaders from the mountains or the coast, the* .survivors would lie.* to the* many-i danded lake, and there shelter till the stormy days were pa st. Paddling across to t he*se* islets, and taking all their e-anoe.s with the*ni. they were* safe from their canni ba I foes.