§ 7. Of Te Waimate Station, and the Road thereto.

Here I should briefly mention the geographical position of those two places or Mission Stations. Paihia (as I have already shown) was on the immediate sea-shore; Te Waimate was about half-way across the island, between the Bay of Islands and the head of the Hokianga river; not very many miles distant (perhaps sixteen) in a direct line from Paihia; but in those days of no roads nor bridges, and scarcely even a Maori track between the two Stations, it was considered a good day's journey (on foot of course,) from the one Station to the other; a portion of the way being circuitous by the sea-shore made the distance to be more than twenty miles. There were also two uninviting places to be crossed; the one at Whauwhauroa, a broad muddy estuary lined by mangroves, unfordable save at low-water or nearly so and then only by stripping and slowly and cautiously finding one's way with a long pole, wading through deep tidal mud;^† and the other the big river Waiaruhe, equally impassable after rains which also, a little lower down from the ford in its course, forms the Waitangi waterfall. Indeed this, the nearer way, was so very bad, that Mr. Williams, his wife and family, and his goods, all went by the much longer and roundabout one,—across the Bay and up the long Kerikeri river in boats, and thence to Te Waimate by a track over the high open land,—which altogether might occupy three days.