Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 8 (December 1, 1929)

Havens and Retreats

Havens and Retreats.

Half Moon Bay, with its comfortable looking little township of Oban—Rakiura's only town—, Port William, just to the north-west of it; Paterson Inlet, with its cloud of islets; Port Adventure, Lord's River—where the rare white heron or kotuku, still survives—Port Pegasus, that splendid haven away in the south, are the principal indents in this forest-blanketed island. But there are innumerable minor coves and bays and estuaries, that would take “a month of Sundays” to explore.

Paterson Inlet, where the modern whalers go, is a glorious place for a boating holiday. Once, sailing around it and around its islands, I heard from old Mohi the Maori some scraps of folk-talk about birds and trees and islets. We boiled the mid-day billy in Kaipipi Bay, and while gathering dry sticks for the fire, the old man said, “Now, don't take any of those Kotukutuku branches; they are the most unlucky firewood. If we use them for cooking, we'll be makutu'd—they'll bring on paralysis of the legs. We don't want that, do we?” We certainly did not, so I left those Kotukutuku—the native berry-bearing fuchsia—severely alone.