Buried Village
Hopping into my car I headed out towards Lake Tarawera, to the site of the Buried Village of Te Wairoa.
My guide was Ngaroma Maika, of the Tuhourangi tribe, and a descendant of Guide Sophia. As she took me through the museum, Ngaroma told me interesting snippets about the great collection of photographs, artefacts and exhibits of early tourist times before the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera. Prior to the eruption, the Tuhourangi people had prospered from their work organising day trips to the Terraces. At Hinemihi meeting house, the eyes of the carvings were made of gold sovereigns instead of the traditional paua (a type of shellfish) shell. A priest or tohunga, Tuhoto Ariki, warned the people that disaster could follow, and the sighting of a phantom canoe days before the eruption confirmed his fears of impending disaster.
[ more about Guide Sophia ]
The
[ more about Mount Tarawera Eruption]
in June 1886 destroyed the famous Pink and White Terraces and buried Te Wairoa and two smaller Maori villages under hot, heavy ash and mud, killing more than 150 people. After the eruption the Tuhourangi people did not return to the Tarawera area, but relocated to Whakarewarewa and nearby Ngapuna. Outside the museum, I wandered through the village, looking at the blacksmith's shop, the whare or house of Tuhoto Ariki, and the stone storehouse, where Te Wairoa people stored foods for winter usage. A short walk to the Te Wairoa Falls follows a track used by early tourists to make their way down to a boat landing, to board a floating tour to the Pink and White Terraces.
After this short, but very informative stop, Ngaroma bade us a gracious good bye and haere ra (farewell).
Lift-off over Mount Tarawera
Mid afternoon on a crisp, sunny winters day we decided to go for a bird's eye view of the area with a 45 minute helicopter ride. The brilliant diversity of the Rotorua landscape was immediately apparent from the air. Exotic plantings of the gigantic Kaingaroa Forest contrasted with the native bush ringing most of the area's beautiful lakes.
Arron, our pilot, pointed out Lake Tikitapu or Blue Lake, the much larger Rotokakahi or Green Lake, then Lake Rotomahana, much enlarged by the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886. We crossed the southern part of Mount Tarawera, before circling in to land. The temperature was bracing but the view beautiful, with two snowfalls having recently graced the mountain.
I was mesmerised by the view to the east, out towards the Eastern Bay of Plenty coast. To the right lay Mount Putauaki, or Mount Edgecumbe, and to the left the unmistakable hump of Moutohora or Whale Island and further out White Island. After walking around where we landed for a while, we started on our return trip. On our way back we passed the pristine waters of Lake Tarawera, and nearby farmlands before the plantation forest gave way to scrub and the eerie-looking geothermal features of Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley.
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