Away From Home

A week or so before we left home for our big North Island trip, I spent a little time one afternoon online, checking out things we could do around Rotorua. When I stumbled upon the website for The Buried Village, I knew that was a place we wanted to go. We have a book (supposed to be on the shelf, but I couldn’t find it today to take a picture) titled Fire in the Sky, a fictional diary of a boy who visited the Pink and White Terraces days before they were destroyed in the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886. We read the book once, probably about 12 years ago. Esther and I decided we should take it with us and read it aloud before we went to Rotorua. She read the entire book to us as we drove on our first few days. When we visited the archeological site, which has been partially reconstructed, it really came to life, since we had read the book, which is set in the village of Te Wairoa. This was the entrance to the village. There were signs set up along the path, each of them displaying a fictional letter written by someone who had visited the area around the time of the eruption.

This is scoria, or volcanic ash, from the eruption. All the paths are covered with it.

The rock in this picture is volcanic ash, which covered the ground two meters (about six feet) deep.

This was the site of one of the hotels, which has been excavated down to the original ground level. The case holds items found on the site.

A reconstructed Maori whare, or house, on its original location. A lot of the buildings collapsed under the weight of the volcanic ash.

From the village, the track led into the bush and along a beautiful creek.

Along the creek was a shelter holding an old waka, or war canoe. The children were reading a sign posted on the ceiling, part of a treasure hunt they had been doing throughout the village. Because they found the end of the hunt, here in this shelter, and were able to repeat what it said to the woman at the desk in the office, they were each given a chocolate coin.

Just after the waka, the track divided. Gayle was tired, so we took the easier fork and were treated to this view, with the sign that explained what we saw. During the eruption, the hill in the distance shielded Te Wairoa to a certain extent from the ash; everything that landed on the village had to come all the way over that hill.

The other branch of the track went to this waterfall; the older children walked around there.

After leaving the village, we drove up the road a short distance to an overlook and were able to see Mount Tarawera. What a view! It is the flat-topped mountain on the right side of the picture beyond the lake.

Right after I published this post, I received an email in response to it. The reader commented: I doubt if you would have read of the Christian man killed at the village you visited the Buried Village. He was a young Englishman who was at the hotel when the eruption began all those years ago. When the eruption began he gathered the people together with awful danger increasing by the seconds he shared the Gospel urging the people to get right with God. After sharing the Gospel an attempt was made by the people to seek better shelter. Sadly this young man was not successful and crushed to death under the weight of the ash on the collapsing hotel. Many years ago I visited his grave in a cemetery outside Rotorua. Actually, we did hear about this person. There is a museum attached to the village, which we wandered through before exploring the site. The only exhibit in the museum which is not a still display is a room with a man sitting at a desk. When you enter the room, lights start flashing in the window, and the room rumbles and shakes. The man starts talking, saying the words the Christian man (Reverend Bainbridge, if I remember right) wrote just before he died, calling people to repentance. And then, suddenly, all goes dark and quiet after a final crashing and rumbling as the hotel collapsed.