Through South Westland : A journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring New Zealand . tterworts nodded their heads from their hair-like stems, and other flov/ers grew in sprays ofblue with pink buds, which I took to be orchids—Thelymitra, perhaps. Then we turned and looked back at it lay by its lagoon: a forgotten corner,once so full of life. Far away stretched reachesof grey and opal water, edged by violet hills ;now and again a couple of black swans wingedtheir way across the placid surface—they, andthe tiny curls of smoke ascending into the stillair, were the only signs of life. My
Through South Westland : A journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring New Zealand . tterworts nodded their heads from their hair-like stems, and other flov/ers grew in sprays ofblue with pink buds, which I took to be orchids—Thelymitra, perhaps. Then we turned and looked back at it lay by its lagoon: a forgotten corner,once so full of life. Far away stretched reachesof grey and opal water, edged by violet hills ;now and again a couple of black swans wingedtheir way across the placid surface—they, andthe tiny curls of smoke ascending into the stillair, were the only signs of life. My comj)anion begged me to come to tea, sayingher mother was from home, and she was in chargeof the family. There were six younger than herselfand she was but sixteen—thus do girls on the Coastlearn to be women. As we sat over our tea, avisitor and her baby arrived, and I heard of thegreat disappointment the town had just sustained. It seems the Jane Douglas, on her coastingtrips, is sometimes delayed by the harbour bar, andhas been shut m as long as two months at a TIti;i;-FK]{.\S ON THK IKTXCK OF IHK lUSll. [:i,s OKAEITO. 39 and occasionally she cannot enter at all. Thistime she could not get out, and after a fortnightswaiting the Captain sent for his wife; one of thecrew did the same, and they prepared to spendChristmas there. Okarito likewise were to be pic-nics, to which everyonewould go old and young; races on the sands, anda ball. Alas ! the night before the festivities wereto have commenced, a change of wind set the tidescouring out the bar ; the ladies were hastily takenon board, and at daybreak the Jane Douglas steamed away, leaving the town lamenting overits unfulfilled social engagements, and onepromising romance at least unfinished ! I dont know why one gets so interested in allthe events on the Coast. I think it must be becauseall the people know each other, and are mostlyrelated. Every place we stopped at we broughtmessages from relative
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