Lake Rotorua by Esther Singleton

(_NEW ZEALAND_) / H. R. HAWEIS

The therme, or hot baths, of the near future are without doubt the / marvellous volcanic springs of Rotorua and the Lake Taupo district, in / the North Island. They can now be reached from London, _via_ Francisco, / in thirty-three days. They concentrate in a small area all the varied / qualities of the European springs, and other curative properties of an / extraordinary character, which are not possessed in the same degree / by any other known waters. Before Mr. Froude's _Oceana_, and the / subsequent destruction of the famous pink terraces, little attention / had been called to one of the most romantic and amazing spectacles in / the world. The old terraces are indeed gone. The idyllic villages, the / blossoming slopes are a waste of volcanic ashes and scorie through / which the dauntless vegetation is only now beginning to struggle. The / blue waters are displaced and muddy, but the disaster of one shock / could not rob the land of its extraordinary mystery and beauty. For / a distance of three hundred miles, south of Lake Taupo and running / north, a volcanic crust, sometimes thin enough to be trodden through, / separates the foot from a seething mass of sulphur, gas, and boiling / water, which around Rotorua and Waikari finds strange and ample vents, / in hot streams, clouds of vapour, warm lakes, geysers, occasionally / developing into appalling volcanic outbursts, which certainly / invest this region with a weird terror, but also with an inconceivable / charm, as white vapour breaks amidst flowering bushes, in the midst of / true valleys of paradise; the streams ripple hot and crystalline over / parti-coloured rocks or through emerald-hued mossy dells; the warm / lakes sleep embedded in soft, weedy banks, reflecting huge boulders, / half clothed in tropical foliage; coral-like deposits here and there of / various tints reproduce the famous terraces in miniature; and geysers, / in odd moments, spout huge volumes of boiling water with an unearthly / roar eighty feet into the air.