From the lookout by the lake one can see in the distance the large mass of Maungatautari Mountain. Although now cut off from the forest of the Mamaku Ranges by farmlands, it still holds whiteheads, pied tits, tui, kaka and kereru. The easiest way to get there is by crossing the Karapiro Dam and turning left into Luck-at-Last Road which leads up the mountain.

Travelling towards Rotorua one leaves the farmlands of the Waikato and moves into the Mamaku Ranges. Farming in this area started late because of a wasting disease affecting all livestock. This was eventually found to be caused by cobalt and selenium deficiencies in the soil. Once this was corrected by top-dressing, settlement by Pakeha was rapid, and large areas, particularly to the south, are now in dry stock or dairying.

The Mamaku Plateau was built up by a series of volcanic eruptions which threw up tremendous quantities of fragmental rhyolitic debris that coalesced on landing into a coherent, massive rock called ignirnbrite.

Ignimbrite landscapes are very distinctive and the Mamaku Plateau is one of the most outstanding of these. Geological opinion is divided as to whether the Plateau is made up of separate types of ignimbrite, or one type divided into sections.

Extensive forests remain in the north of the Mamakus but this has probably more to do with the difficulty of turning it into pasture than any deliberate conservation policy. Nevertheless, in the remoter areas there still exist good stands of rimu, miro, tawa, hinau, rewarewa, mangeao, totara and kahikatea together with various types of beech. In the north there are a few small patches of kauri as well, but this is its southern limit.

To see most of this forest requires forays on foot, but for those who are either in a hurry, or not energetic, there is a particularly fine patch of bush astride State Highway 5, the main road from Rotorua to Hamilton, at Fitzgerald Glade. You could not ask for a better example of the riotous proliferation of undergrowth where browsing animals are excluded.

Together with the forested ranges to the east, this area is known collectively as the Kaimai-Mamakus . This bush has quite a variety of native birds: kaka, robins, tits, tui and korimako are sometimes found here, along with the occasional wlutehead and nfleman. Most notably, the area boasts the country's largest population of kokako.

Cynics have often commented that the kokako is the most common of the endangered birds and one gentleman at Rotorua suggested to me that ‘greenies’ ship them from place to place (probably to throw a spoke in the wheels of logging trucks and conjures up an image of David Bellamy with a large briefcase). In fact, with the possible exception of the kakapo, it is difficult to think of a bird more afflicted with evolutionary limitations. It is an indifferent flyer so cannot move from forest that is being logged; it needs an extensive area of bush to maintain a viable population; it feeds on the ground so is vulnerable to attack from stoats and ferrets and feral cats; possum and deer both compete with it for food; and when it attempts its dawn chorus where the bush is close to open country, such as the Rangitoto Range, it is now mobbed by magpies.

Even today the kokako's habitat is under threat. Several years ago the corridor linking the population of about 100 birds in the East Mamakus with the 200 in the West Mamakus was stnp-felled of trees for paper pulp. Steps have been taken to get this corridor replanted, but regeneration of trees takes years and time is one thing the kokako doesn't have.

After leaving the Kaimais one passes through the farmlands around Ngongotaha before reaching Rotorua. About five kilometres from Rotorua on Highway 5 is Rainbow Springs, which has a kiwi house and a collection of native birds. There is also a good native fern collection, but the feature of the springs is its huge collection of trout. There are rainbow trout, brown trout and brook trout, from tiny fingerlings to monsters that would make a fisherman green with envy.

Rotorua, famous for its thermal wonders and scenic lakes, is our premier tourist attraction. But wander only a short distance from the typical tourist 'habitat' and there is plenty to see and do. A stone's throw from downtown Rotorua, on a steaming silica spit in Sulphur Bay, is the largest colony of black-billed gulls in the North Island, far fl-om their usual nesting areas in Canterbury's braided riverbeds. The warm, murky, sulphurous water is so acidic that long-term residents often have the webs of their feet missing, dissolved by constant immersion in the water. Also nesting there are red-billed gulls and little black shags and not far away, at the back of the Travelodge Hotel, a group of banded dotterels breeds regularly.

Although both red-billed and black-bwed gulls nest in the same area, their habits differ considerably. Red-billed gulls are unabashed scroungers who frequent the Rotorua rubbish tip and 'work’ the tourists along the nearby lakefront. Black-bills, with southern decorum, eschew such common behaviour and feed in pastures in surrounding farmlands.

These gulls also feature in the history of the local Arawa people. In 1823 during an attack by the Ngapuhi from North Auckland, the Arawa, who were ensconced on Mokoia Island, were alerted by the calls of the gulls. The belief arose that the souls of the Arawa killed in the ensuing battle entered the gulls and they were thereafter protected by a tapu.

Here, as in the Waikato, exotic @ flourish, and the stand of redwoods at Whakarewarewa is considered to be the finest outside their native California. This stand was the most successful of a number of experimental plots planted in 1901 in various parts of the country. Another fine example is to be found at Hamurana Springs on the northern shore of the lake.

The town of Rotorua is situated on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, on comparatively flat land with hills rising off to the south and west. Lake Rotorua, some 10 kilometres in diameter, was at one time considerably larger with a level 100 metres above its present one. The cold springs of Hamurana, Rainbow and Fairy and the hot springs of Whakarewarewa, Kuirau and Ohinemutu all feed into Lake Rotorua and these have been developed into popular tourist facilities.

'There are some 20 lakes within 30 kilometres of the town, all of volcanic origin and filling craters, calderas and valleys blocked off by lava flows. Although some of these are small and relatively inaccessible, there are a number of particularly beautiful lakes within easy reach of Rotorua.

To the east of Rotorua are Rotoiti, Rotoehu and Rotoma. These are popular with anglers for their rainbow trout but they are also fringed with forest which supports good numbers of birds. All are easily reached from State Highway 30, although this road is a bit winding at times, particularly near Lake Rotoiti.

The road to Lake Okataina leaves State Highway 30 at Ruato, 22 kilometres east of Rotorua. This is probably the most beautiful of all Rotorua's lakes, a gem in a sylvan setting. I will always remember as a child being shown the lair of a feral cat near Lake Okataina. Besides the sad remains of a range of exotic birds we also found those of fantails, pied tits, warblers and robins. At least 50 birds had been killed by this cat to feed her kittens and although we disposed of this particular brood, there are many more thousands throughout the country and the damage they do is tremendous. The feral cat is a bigger and more rangy animal than its domestic antecedents and although usually a tabby it sometimes has traces of other forebears as well.

Despite the ravages of these predators native birds manage to survive in the Rotorua area. The bellbird is doing well even though it has disappeared from many other areas (possibly because of a disease introduced by exotic birds). Bellbirds from Rotorua have been used to restock other areas, including Waiheke Island off Auckland. They are particularly partial to the native fuchsia so look for them where these are flowering. The no-exit road to Lake Okataina passes through beautiful groves of these trees.

Not surprisingly, with the numbers of lakes and swamps in this area waterfowl are plentiful. Scaup, the diving duck, occurs in scattered groups along the margins of most lakes as do black swans, mallards, grey ducks and bitterns. A few years ago, a small group of chestnut-fronted shelducks were seen on Lake Rotorua. Although similar to our paradise duck, they can be distinguished by their black head. One of the main populations of the rare New Zealand dabchick (weweia) is to be found here, and can often be seen around Mokoia Island, in Lake Rotorua, and in Lake Rotoiti. Scaup nested in many of the burial caves of this island, which offered particularly effective protection for them, given the respect the Maori had for the dead. The white-eyed duck (karakahia) was once common on Lake Rotomahana but was apparently wiped out in the volcanic eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886.

Travel south or west of Rotorua and it is difficult to see anything but exotic trees. In the last 50 or so years vast areas have been planted in exotics and more than 50,000 h of this is in radiata pine with other plantings of Corsican pine, Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and other species such as eucalypts. The Kaingaroa Forest, covering some 138,000 hectares, was until recently said to be the largest planted forest on Earth with kilometre after kilometre of road lined with similar-sized trees. It is hard to imagine anything more different from the coniferous forests in places like Scandinavia where the trees grow in a beautiful variety of species and sizes.

About 20 kilometres south of Rotorua on State Highway 5 is a junction with a loop road going to the Waiinangu Valley, and a track leading to Lake Rotomahana. This whole area was devastated by the Tarawera eruption and the later explosion of the Waimangu Geyser and now boasts the largest boiling lake in the world with a fauna adapted to the extreme conditions.

From Waimangu continuing down the loop road will bring you out on to State Highway 38 to Kaingaroa. Three kilometres down this the road leading off to the left will take you around the north of Lake Rerewhakaaitu and along Ashpit Road to the approaches to Mt Tarawera, the scene of the most devastating volcanic eruption in the Pakeha era.

On 10 June 1886, with virtually no warning, Tarawera erupted, killing 153 people, devastating a huge area of the central North Island and destroying the settlements of Te Ariki, Maura and Te Wairoa.

The famed Pink and White Terraces, the 'marvels of natural architecture' made up of shining silica, were completely destroyed and Lake Rotomahana itself was formed in the eruption.

Much of the Rotorua-Tarawera district was in scrub and fern before the eruption, with tall forest covering the lower flanks of the mountain, and much of this, particularly near the centre of the blast, was destroyed. Today, the vegetation on the lower slopes is regenerating, but a series of nine gigantic craters stretch across the mountain as raw and stark as the day they were formed and all around them the land is bare. The craters can be reached by a gravel road that leads off to the left from State Highway 38 near Rainbow Mountain. Only those vehicles with four-wheel drive should attempt the steep dirt road to the plateau near the summit.