LAKE TAUPO, NORTH END, AT TAPUAEHARURU.
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XIV.
LAKE TAUPO, NORTH END, AT TAPUAEHARURU.
WITH ITS OUTLET INTO THE WAIKATO RIVER.
AT the north end of Lake Taupo, the beautiful cone of Tauhara points out the region where the Waikato leaves the lake, even here a stream of great depth and force. This mighty river, it has been observed, taking its rise at the base of Tongariro and Ruapahu, flows through Lake Taupo, as the Rhine does through the Lake of Constance. At the base of Tauhara is a hot lake of a dark green colour. A stream from this runs across the plain, emptying itself into Lake Taupo, on the eastern side. Two miles farther on, down the course of the river, is the Otumaheke Valley. Here is a rivulet running quite hot the length of half a mile, and forming a waterfall close to the Waikato River. The ground, for miles hereabout, is boiled perfectly soft, thrown up into small mud cones, and pierced with many holes and crevices, discharging columns of steam; some of these fumaroles, such as Karapiti, used to cast up water instead of discharging vapour, as they do at present. There is another region of hot springs at Orakeikorako, thirty or forty miles farther north; and again at Nihotikihore, the usual crossing place of the Waikato, on the road to the Rotomahana and Rotorua hot lakes. These terminate the volcanic district towards the coast of the Bay of Plenty.
