The scenery of this splendid tract of country burst so suddenly upon us after rounding the broad base of Mount Pihanga that we seemed to have entered a wild, romantic land blessed with the grandest and most varied features of nature. To the north was Lake Taupo, with the island and bold headlands tinged with the golden rays of the setting sun; in front of us were the tall Kaimanawa Mountains clothed to their summits with sombre forests, over which the shades of evening played in a fitful kind of way, now lighting up the broad ravines, now clothing them with darkness. The wide, rolling sides of the Tongariro Mountains swept down to the plains in a series of terrace-like slopes, green with a dense growth of fern and native grasses, which, mingling with the trees on the higher ridges, gave the hills a park-like look, while, as we rode onward, the white glittering summit of Ruapehu assumed a pink rosy tint as the orb of day sank slowly to rest in the west. Our course was along the Rangipo in the direction of Tongariro, some fifteen miles distant by the way we were going to attack it, and as we were acting a kind of strategic movement we kept out to the east along the Waikato River, to avoid, if possible, being seen by the natives of Rotoaira, who keep watch and ward over the tapued mountain. Everything looked propitious for the assault which we had intended to make on the following day. When we took up our quarters for the night, the moon rose bright and clear, the stars shone brilliantly, and the snow on the dark mountains gleamed white and beautiful. By this time we were already 850 feet above Lake Taupo, or a little over 2000 feet above the level of the sea; the air was singularly clear, and the thermometer, which had marked 48° in the shade at 6 a.m., at midday had risen to 72°, and had fallen to 64° at 5 p.m., and as the wind was still from the south, and there appeared every prospect of fine weather on the morrow, we determined to start at daybreak to make the next stage for Tongariro; but alas! "the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft a-gley."