The Wonderland of the Antipodes; And Other Sketches of Travel in the North Island of New Zealand

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 edition. Excerpt: ... use, too, of the leaves of the cabbage-tree (what Lady Barker calls the ti-tree palm); the fibre is very strong and clean, but short; and requires boiling to get rid of the green outer coating. What puzzles one most in our amateur road-making, is the way in which the face of the country alters in the wet season; where we walked dry-shod the other day,_we find next week either a treacherous bog, or else it is chest deep in water; and I have had one short acquaintance with a summer " fresh," that is vividly impressed on my memory still. There had been three months of consecutive sunshine, and we had stacked our timber for the mill, close to where it was landed, in apparent safety. The rain came at last without any previous warning; and for three days we had an unceasing down-pour. The first night made me take to the " store," for I had the weather-side of the tent, and after a vain attempt to sleep in my mackintosh, I found the insidious drip and patter from the roof was sure to creep in at some weak or exposed corner, and give one a cold shiver as it trickled down the body. During the next two days the river kept rising rapidly, for the dry ground was unable to drink in the rain fast enough owing to the previous drought, which had caked it so hard; and all the surface drainage ran ofl at once as from a duck's back. I felt uneasy the third day, when the water had reached the level of the banks, and sat up measuring its rise, which was at the rate of an inch every half hour. I carried the bulletins to the tent, where one of my companions still held out bravely; and after my repeated warnings had wakened him from an incipient drowse into a state of the most fidgety watchfulness, he at last sprang to his feet,...