Rediscovering Te Tuhi's Spring and Black Terrace Crater

This seminal report by PAWTL2 Project team Lead Investigator Rex Bunn initiated the 21st-century interest and research into Te Tuhi's Spring aka Te Ngāwhā a Te Tuhi and the Black Terrace. This PAWTL2 presentation was produced for our October 28-29 2017 plenary meeting. It is the first research paper to document the history of Te Tuhi's Spring aka the Black Terrace of old Lake Rotomahana in New Zealand. Te Tuhi's Spring first appeared in Hochstetter's 1859 map of the lake and was the third major silica sinter terrace at the lake, along with the better-known Pink and White Terraces. Incorporating location research by Smith, Harding, Nairn, Keam and White et al; the key conclusion was that Black Terrace and Black Terrace Crater are discrete, vicinal sites. A search field and transect were recorded for planned PAWTL2 Project field research on the Black Terrace Crater location in 2018. The preprint of this presentation was published on 2.11.2018. Te Ngāwhā a Te Tuhi, translated as Te Tuhi’s Spring (and later confused with Black Terrace Crater) was one of the geothermal attractions around old Lake Rotomahana. The earliest name is in Hochstetter’s 1859 survey i.e. Te Ngawa Atetuhi (or Te Tuhi’s Spring). The entry was clarified and interpreted in 2017 by Rangitihi Pene and I viz: From the preceding words Te Ngāwhā … Te Tuhi is most likely a person’s name (the sentence indicates Te Tuhi is a noun), pers. comm., RP:RB, 2017. Te Ngāwhā a Te Tuhi and Tamariwi were hot springs with silica terraces; on the west and north sides of the lake. These were not included in the nineteenth-century organised tours, for they were not as accessible as the Pink and White Terraces. The first western record is by Hochstetter who visited Te Tuhi’s Spring, sketched, painted it and included it on his 29-30/4/1859 maps at the lake: "A little beyond the lake, in a small side-valley, lies the Atetuhi;…”Hochstetter, 1867 New Zealand, p.418. That it was a significant Terrace is attested by its inclusion on the boundary of the 1861 map by Petermann, requiring a border extension to accommodate it. Note: In 2017 we were working with the then-latest Hochstetter survey iteration i.e. Iteration IV. In 2022 with the advent of new research, we are applying Iteration VI. Thus, some aspects of this presentation have been superseded.