Rotorua, N. Zealand, Sunday night, August 7th, 1898.

We did not retire too early last night as the company were very merry. Mrs. Brent & her sister, Miss Rutherford, join the pleasures after dinner & help to make all go merry.

This morning opened out lovely, clear tho’ cold, & prospected for us a good day, & so it turned out. We left in a buggy & pair at 10:30 for the far famed & unique place named Tikiteri[1], [sic] or Hell’s Gates. We stopped on our way passing through Whakarewarewa, where we had spent yesterday afternoon & again had a grand second view of all we had seen yesterday. We got Sophia, who is now 66, for our guide & took the opportunity of photographing her 4 times, Mr. Cobb with her twice & I twice, different positions, & hope they will be good, as they may some day be historical. She showed & graphically described all to us, & I told her of my friend Mr. Burgis, who with his wife, she had guided to the Terraces[2] (before the eruption, 1885) & told her I would shew them my photographs which we had taken. We got [6:13][3] into our buggy again & off we set for Tikiteri, 10 ½ miles from Rotorua, through bush country, soft sandy roads, which at one part reminded us of the road from Beal to the sands, & we crossed a running stream reminding us further of the sands to Holy Island. We passed a great gap which had been cut out by flood immediately after the eruption of Tarewera, 1886, & which diverted the roadway & lowered it fully 20 feet. We passed several Maori settlements en route & many Maories on foot, & some in buggies going to church, & just here we passed a fine view of the island Makoio, which has a legend, like Lord Ullen’s daughter.

We soon reached our destination & got the guide Pat McRoy, who has a Maori wife, been guide for 22 years & is yet a fresh, well-preserved man. He conducted us straight away to the wonders of this place, sulphur everywhere, steam blowing like a factory engine in dozens of place[s] & ascending, in some instances, like clouds, even out of the hill sides far up. He took us first to Hell’s Gates, awful sight of boiling, surging water, 232°, can’t describe it. Next to the mud & oil pot, called the Donkey Engine. Out of the pool they take the mud & put it into baths for curing rheumatism. Just here I inserted the guide’s long stick into the boiling mass & again through the crust near the edge, & found no obstacle. Around all these pools is a crust formed by the ash which fell from the atmosphere after the eruption,[4] & is inches thick. The under crust having a stratum of pure sulphur attached. [6:14][5] I’ve got some specimens. If I can get them safely home, I will shew you them. Near here I held in a little hole, which was bub[b]ling up, not 2 inches in circumference, silver coins – 3 sixpences & one florin, & instantly they became black. I had a sore job to persevere as it was boiling hot, & had they been left long enough, the silver would have been eaten away, so the guide told us, & it’s common for tourists to colo[u]r silver here. Next he took us to the “alum & sulphur” pool. I tasted this & both elements were perceptible. This was also boiling, but I instantly dipped my finger in for the sake of testing it. Next we went to the pool called “Inferno”, & it is appropriately named, being a mud & oil bath, great area. This a most wonderful sight & quite beyond description, & must be seen to be comprehended. Close by this Inferno is the “Devil’s Porridge Pot”, mud & oil again bub[b]ling up in great globes & bursting like porridge on the fire in pan. What a freak of nature. Next was “Satan’s Glory”. We stood on its brink, the boiling mud seething up. Next to the “Devil’s Punch Bowl”. Here was a torpedo & shooting off like a gun. Most extraordinary sight & sound, & here, close by, is a bank of hematite,[6] a sample of which I got, as also a piece of crust, exactly like what the Pink Terraces was formed of. These terraces were destroyed by the eruption. Mr. Burgis saw them in 1885. Sophia guided him & Mrs. B. I quote now from memory, having read their diary. Near here was a cold spring pool in midst of boiling springs. I tasted it & delicious it was, & near this is a lovely waterfall used as a douch[e] by the natives. [6:15][7] Great areas of sulphur beds are here abouts, the real thing, & you can scrape it off the crust. Only the treacle[8] is wanted here, the dark contains 85% & the yellow 75%, the other components being silica &c. I’ve got a sample. We next ascended a fine hill to look down upon these sights from its summit. I got a warning, but keen to see everything, I took a sketch from top, grand panorama from it, overlooking the Rotorua Lake & the Lake Rotoiti, which has its outlet into a river, “Kaituna”.

Now for a grand sight, The Blue Lake,[9] away through primeval forest 1 mile or more, but oh, what a lovely sight, an enormous area of the most beautiful washing blue water in a great round bowl, an extinct crater. I should say it will be fully 2 miles in circumference. Its loveliness is beyond description, great tree-clad sides, here & there perpendicular, & places sloped, & tree & fern clad. We did feast our eyes upon the scene & reluctantly left it, but I forgot that, previously to going up the mountain, we had visited another huge pool called the “Gate of Paradise”, & you stand on its brink & look upon lovely clear water, boiling & bub[b]ling up, a very pretty sight indeed. Now we lunched & left for home, this about 3:15, & again we stopped at Whakarewarewa, got Sophia, who took us among the hot springs again, & shewed us the Brain Pot, where an old chief use[d] to boil his victims’ heads & where his own was at last cooked.

[6:16]

Next she took us to the “Coffee Pot”, a boiling spring & pool the exact colour of coffee. Then we saw the Twins Geysers in full play, the boiling, gurgling, bursting into the air 20 to 30 feet. This, Sophia said, was the height. It was near here where I photo’d Mr Cobb & he me, & we got a man to photo us both. If these be good, the geyser will be seen playing. Sophie [sic] was delighted we had photo’d her during the morning & so were we, as we would have lost our opportunity, it being after 5 & sun set, but what a sun set, can’t describe it, from crimson mottled to silver streaks & over a beautiful mountain. We joined the buggy again & drove to hotel, where tea was ready & we did it ample justice. We retired to the smoking room, I to write this rigmarole & Mr. Cobb some correspondence, grave & gay, some of which has gone to Berwick, & Mary may hear of it.

I am sorry to say my time for leaving here is up & I return to Au[c]kland by the 8:30 in the morning. Mr. Cobb remains to do business here & around the locality. Now good night, but let me say, Mr. Bain would have us to join him in singing some of our old Scotch psalms, to Kilmarnock, Jacksons, Glasgow, French, Old 100 & Old 124th &c. &c. & we did enjoy them.

[6:17][10]

[1] Correctly Tikitere.

[2] Inserted on facing page: “These were the Pink Terraces at Tarawera, destroyed by the eruption in 1886. I’m told they are forming again. That locality was deserted after the eruption & still is a desolation”.

[3] Inserted on facing page: “After leaving Whakarewarewa & on the road to Tikiteri, the driver took us to the very spot, in the bush, where Mr. Bainbridge was first interred, but owing to its marshy nature, they had the remains removed to where we had on the Friday afternoon visited the grave & photo’d it just at the base of the Ngongotaha Mountain. There are a few more graves there besides Mr. Bainbridge’s”.

[4] Inserted on facing page: “Memo: the ash was carried over 15 miles”.

[5] Inserted on facing page: “Onehunga, Auckland West coast shipping port, 7 miles by rail onto wharf from Auckland.

Tarawera mountain, 22 miles from Rotorua.

Maori:

‘Tanoko oo’ salutation

‘Kapai’ very good

‘Kai’ food

Whakarewarewa, hot spring 2 miles from Rotorua.

Rotorua, hot springs.

Tikiteri, hot springs, 11 miles.

Ohinemutu, Rotorua, hot springs, 1 mile.

‘Kororo’ (or talking place) Tama-te-Kapua at Ohinemutu.

Ngongotaha, where Bainbridge is buried, 4 miles from Rotorua.”

[6] A mineral constituting an important iron ore and occurring in crystals or in a red earthy form

[7] Inserted on facing page:  sketch of a railway carriage with these notes, “N. Zealand first class carriage. Buffer in center under platform. Coat & hat hooks in carriages. No doors at sides. Windows staged also double with venetian for sun in summer.”

[8] A medicinal compound formerly in wide use as a remedy against poison

[9] Lake Tikitapu.

[10] Inserted on facing page: “2 photos of Gisborne 1/- each, N. Zealand.

Weighed Augst. 1898 12st – 10lb at Morrinsville junction on way back to Auckland from Rotorua. [Editor’s Note: 178 lbs or 80.9 kg]

10 Hhd (of 50) rum for methylating & essences. R.F. & Co. A. D.1271 #22, Aug 9/98.

Whitcomb & Tooms for Auckland views.”