Mike Yardley: Time out in Tarawera
(Photo / Supplied)
Sat, 24 Jul 2021, 2:29PM
It’s the cradle within the cradle of New Zealand tourism, the Buried Village of Te Wairoa. If the 1886 Tarawera eruption was our version of Vesuvius, Te Wairoa is surely our homegrown mini-Pompeii. As the birthplace of New Zealand tourism, prior to 1886, moneyed Europeans flocked to these parts, to see, photograph, paint, sketch and bathe in the mineral waters of the legendary Pink and White Terraces. Te Wairoa was the staging post, from where they’d board a whaleboat, in their crinoline dresses and bowler hats, to cross Lake Tarawera to reach those tantalising terraces on Lake Rotomahana. At the time of the eruption, Te Wairoa was humming, home to 150 residents, two hotels, the Hinemihi meeting house, a church and school. It was the Tuhourangi people, a sub-tribe of Te Arawa, who owned most of the land in the area, astutely cashing in big-time on the booming tourist trade.