I May As Well Here Correct An Error, Which I Had Been Under, And Which
You May, Perhaps, Have Shared With Me - Native Grass Cannot Be Mown.
After proceeding some few miles further, I came to a station, where,
though a perfect stranger, and at first (at some little distance)
mistaken for a Maori, I was most kindly treated, and spent a very
agreeable evening.
The people here are very hospitable; and I have
received kindness already upon several occasions, from persons upon whom
I had no sort of claim.
Next day I went to Oxford, which lies at the foot of the first ranges,
and is supposed to be a promising place. Here, for the first time, I
saw the bush; it was very beautiful; numerous creepers, and a luxuriant
undergrowth among the trees, gave the forest a wholly un-European
aspect, and realised, in some degree, one's idea of tropical vegetation.
It was full of birds that sang loudly and sweetly. The trees here are
all evergreens, and are not considered very good for timber. I am told
that they have mostly a twist in them, and are in other respects not
first rate.
* * *
March 24. - At last I have been really in the extreme back country, and
positively, right up to a glacier.
As soon as I saw the mountains, I longed to get on the other side of
them, and now my wish has been gratified.
I left Christ Church in company with a sheep farmer, who owns a run in
the back country, behind the Malvern Hills, and who kindly offered to
take me with him on a short expedition he was going to make into the
remoter valleys of the island, in hopes of finding some considerable
piece of country which had not yet been applied for.
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