There are still several centres of great thermal energy on the Tongariro Range. At the lower and northern end Te Mari and Ketetahi are in a state of almost perpetual turmoil, and clouds of steam rising from their seething cauldrons are visible many miles away. The Red Crater, near the middle of the Range, is still hot in places, and jets of steam hiss through small vents in the gloriously tinted rocks of its sides. At the extreme southern end of the range is the active volcano of Ngauruhoe. In winter-time its slopes are clothed in snow and ice. Occasionally, for days at a time, it sends a vast column of steam fully 3000 feet in the air, and then it is a magnificent sight. At the period of greatest activity the scene must have been almost beyond description. Ngauruhoe was then, indeed, a hell unchained. A New Zealand poet—Mr. D. M. Ross—has graphically depicted such a scene as may well have been witnessed by the original inhabitants of Maoriland—
“O’er Vassal Peaks thy smoky banners spread,
Splashed with red flame as ever on they sped
In serried ranks, squired by the lesser hills,
To purple realms of mystery; the day
Failed of her sun when thy red furnace flamed,
And night was all aglow when earthquakes played
Beneath thy heaving breast of startled snows.”
About two years ago a geologist saw lava in the crater, and, later still, when the mountain was particularly active, a glow as from molten lava appeared in the sky. It would not be at all surprising if at any time there were an eruption on a grand scale. Fortunately, the surrounding country is so unproductive as to be but sparsely settled, and therefore a serious eruption would be more spectacular than destructive.
The Southern Alps extend in a series of ranges from the north to the extreme south of the Middle Island. In the south, the ranges, which run in different directions, are intersected by the splendid fiords on the one side and by the arms of the long, deep lakes on the other. The mountain masses, in some places, come sheer down to the water’s edge, and their bases are far below the level of the lakes or of the sea. Many of their lower slopes are densely wooded, while their summits are capped with perpetual snow and ice. In the region of Milford Sound they rise steeply from the water’s edge, and their solid and sometimes smooth granite walls seem uninviting to the foot of the climber. Going farther north we have another fine series of mountains in the region of Lakes Wakatipu and Wanaka. Though not high, as heights go in the European Alps or in the Himalaya, they are imposing mountains. It is only within comparatively recent years that passes have been discovered between the lakes and the sounds; and although these passes do not lead the traveller beyond the sub-Alpine heights, they take him through scenery that is no less remarkable for its beauty than for its grandeur—a fitting introduction to those greater marvels in the heart of the Southern Alps.