APPOINTMENT AT TARAWERA

©2004 David Minor / Eagles Byte dminor@eznet.net

As young Makereti Thom learned of her Maori past she would have been told of how her ancestor, the great navigator Ngatoroirangi, trapped the sorcerer Tama-o-Hoi deep in the interior of the sacred mountain Tarawera. When the tourists began trickling in during the 1860s they climbed to the base of Tarawera to view the lake there and experience the thermal pools of the Pink Terrace and the seven-acre White Terrace on the hillsides above the water. (Later on the nearby region would attract "Lord of the Rings" film director Peter Jackson, who used it as stand-in for the land of Mordor). The tourists brought their pounds sterling and a local cadre of native guides sprang up, many of them women. But the cash brought its own problems, particularly alcoholism. Tuhoto Ariki, a local tohunga, or priest, became fearful for his fellow Maori. One night, at the end of May, 1886, a phantom canoe was spotted out on Lake Rotomahana. The Maori began taking the tohunga more seriously.

Sometime between June 9th and June 10th, tourist Edwin Bainbridge of Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, would write, "This is the most awful moment of my life. I cannot tell when I may be called upon to meet my God. I am thankful that I find His strength sufficient for me. We are under heavy falls of Volcanoe." A short while earlier the trapped sorcerer Tama-o-Hoi made his bid for freedom. The triple-peaked Tarawera erupted and began shooting flames and smoke thousands of feet up into the cold, clear night sky. Then the lava barged through an underground fissure beneath Lake Rotomahana, hit the hydrothermal pools below, causing the lake bed to blow out. William Bird, another visitor described how, "Dominating all, hung the great cloud-curtain, gloomy and dark above, saffron and orange on its under-surface. From the cloud, great balls of flaming rock dropped from time to time, descending with a splash into the waters of the lake."

By the time accompanying strong winds had calmed and Tarawera had settled down, the villages of Te Ariki and Moura had vanished beneath the lava. Both terraces had vanished. Nearly 120 people died; local schoolmaster Charles Haszard lost five members of his family. And Edwin Bainbridge was called upon to meet his God, as the veranda roof of the Rotomahana Hotel collapsed over his head.

Among the well-known guides that survived the eruptions was Sophia Hinerangi, one of Margaret's aunts. She and several other guides were resettled further north, to the thermal valley at (F)Whaka-rewa-rewa, a living village museum today just outside Rotorua. It was there that Margaret Thom, fresh out of the Hukarere Native Girls' School decided she could best gain her independence by earning a living as a guide. Under the tutelage of Sophia Hinerangi, she took to the routine quickly and her knowledge of her twin heritages, as well as her beauty and her skills as a storyteller soon made Margaret Thom a much sought-after guide. A younger sister, Bella, followed in her footsteps.

One day, while leading a group of tourists, someone asked Margaret if she had a Maori name in addition to her Anglo name. Mentally searching for a plausible sounding name she suddenly thought of nearby geyser, and told the tourist, "My name is Papakura. Maggie Papakura." The name stuck, and soon other family members had adopted the new surname.