Here at the foot of a hill sloping towards the south was situated Te Karapiti, the largest _fumarole_ in the Lake Country. It was formed by a deep and apparently fathomless aperture, rounded like a funnel, and from which issued with a terrific force and unearthly screeching noise, a spiral column of transparent steam, which mounted high into the air as if forced upward from below by a 100-horse-power engine. So great was the force of this column of steam as it issued from the earth, that the branches of trees we threw into the funnel were at once ejected and hurled upwards with tremendous power. When I tested its heat, the thermometer rose to 220° Fahr. This curious steam-hole, which carries on its eruptions incessantly, may be distinctly seen all over the Taupo country.[36] The Huka[37] Falls form, without doubt, the most attractive sight to be seen along the whole valley of the Waikato, and there is no better way to view them than by an approach from the north through Wairakei. Journeying this way, one gets a splendid view of the deep valley of the river, as it meanders for miles on either side, and when the falls burst upon the gaze they produce a magnificent _coup d'oeil_. The river pouring out of Lake Taupo, at an elevation of 1175 feet above the level of the sea, rolls onward in a serpentine course down a picturesque terraced ravine for about five miles, when it suddenly breaks into a series of eddying cascades, and then, sweeping with a rapid current round an abrupt curve, the vast volume of water enters a channel about 150 feet long by 60 feet broad, and with perpendicular, rock-bound sides. The foaming stream thus confined shoots onward with tremendous fury into bounding rapids, until the mass of water leaps from a height of 50 feet into a circular basin below, whence it rushes onwards in its course to the sea. The fine basin into which the river falls is about 150 feet broad in its widest part; its precipitous sides rise to a height of about 60 feet, and above these again the terraced hills of pumice rise hundreds of feet higher. Around this pool the greenest and most varied vegetation clusters to the very edge of the water; enormous boulders lie scattered beneath, as if hurled into their present position by the fury of the stream, and as the bright, bluish-green water comes thundering in a glittering, foaming wave over the rocky precipice, and falls shining beneath the sun in wild, seething eddies below, amidst a cloud of diamond spray, the effect is beautiful in the extreme. [Illustration: SECTION OF VALLEY OF WAIKATO RIVER AT HUKA FALLS. A A. Table-land of pumice drift 1400 feet above sea-level. B B. Flat terrace. C. Channel cut by river through dyke of trachytic rock. D. Fall of river into lower terraced valley, 50 feet.]