Page:Old Westland (1939).pdf/57

Rh boulders of pounamu found in the adjacent streams. From Taramakau, the party pushed on to the Arahura, but upon arrival discovered that all the inhabitants of the pa had gone inland on a bird-snaring expedition.

There was therefore no alternative but to return to the Taramakau, and so back to Mawhera. The following day found the explorers and their native companion at the last-named pa, and here they rested until June 8th, when preparations were made for the long and arduous return journey to Nelson.

Emaciated by hunger, and almost prostrated by the privations and hardships they had undergone, the little party eventually reached West Wanganui, where they picked up stores which had been sent overland. After a stay here they returned to Nelson, arriving home on August 18th, 1846, after an absence of nearly six months.

In their report on the possibilities of the Coast, the explorers stated “that it was unfavourable for settlement, and that for the most part its rivers were unfit for vessels to enter.”

Thus Old Westland for the second time received a bad report. Cook stated it was “an inhospitable shore—unworthy of observation” and Brunner and Heaphy condemned it as aforesaid. Yet beneath the surface of this wild land of forest and flood, lay that which was to