Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Reflections: Sketches on the Wanganui River

[Te Tawaroa Reach]

page break
Mono-colour illustration by Wilhelm Dittmer

E Hirawanu

Winding along, the waka now finds her way between towering walls broken here and there by ferns, rocks, and red-flowering rata. Higher up the hills are studded with groups of cabbage trees, puangas, and totara. Among the rocks is a lacework of ferns, nodding in the broken sunlight, and echoing the soft old songs of the Maori. The tui, resting on the toi-toi, casts her answer on the wind, and wonderingly watches the waka. Soon the great rapid is reached, and Hirawarai, the steersman, summons his skill and nerve to his aid, and ere long we are again in the seething, swirling waters. These past, the reflections of the beautiful bush-covered hills are wonderful in the crystal-clear water below. Up stream the way opens brighter and still more beautiful, unfolding a veritable scenic paradise, which, happy and enervating in its inspirations, lifts the mind from all sorrow to purest tranquility and pleasure.

"Hira" is quietly watching and waiting, murmuring betimes an old war-song, and as we watch the ferns, rata, rocks, and birds, from the pa between the willows sounds the welcome, a kind

Tena Kutou.

page break
Mono-colour illustration by Wilhelm Dittmer

Te Tawaroa Reach