Artwork Information

Angas's description:

"PLATE XXI.

THE HOUSE OF HIWIKAU, AND THE FALLS KOWAIHI, AT TE RAPA, TAUPO LAKE.

IT is truly a romantic spot where Hiwikau, the brother of Te Heuheu, has fixed his residence, at the extremity of the straggling Kainga of Te Rapa, on the shores of the Lake of Taupo: the red dwelling-house, of Māori architecture, with a savage image adorning the summit of its gabled verandah, stands overlooking the broad expanse of the lake- now blue as the vault of heaven that overhangs it, and now black and sullen, and ruffled into countless crisp and foaming waves by the sudden tempests that sweep down from the neighbouring mountains. Behind the dwelling, rise steep rocky cliffs, clothed with every variety of foliage, and the tree-ferns spread their rich and graceful forms over the half-hidden glen, where the thundering falls of Ko Waihi, make endless music, that has long since ceased to be heard by the dwellers hard by, whom constant habit has rendered insensible to the murmuring sound. In New Zealand there is no severe and rigorous winter as in the north, where the leafless trees stretch their naked branches to the inhospitable sky; neither is there any parched and burning summer, that with its scorching breath causes the verdure to wither, and the watercourses to fail. Year after year, the trees are always green, and the waterfall of Kowaihi flows on from generation to generation, amidst a region of perpetual spring and summer.

The chief and his wife are represented sitting in the verandah of the dwelling, where food is generally eaten in wet weather: the inner apartment consists of a spacious sleeping chamber, which has no orifice besides the door and window opening into the verandah."