The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 8 (February 1, 1931)
This Land of Ours
This Land of Ours.
One could go on recalling one such midsummer memory after another. There were days and nights far down the West Coast, in the glacier country; there was a quiet and enchanting week at stewart Island, by bush track and whale-boat. The cumulative effect of the retrospect is a sense of gladness at having seen so much, experienced so much of the real New Zealand, a gratitude to “whatever gods there be” that one was able to extract so much of the joy of life from this pleasant land of ours while there was yet time. For inevitably there comes a time when bones ache and joints creak, when one wants to take it easy in holiday-time. Tents leak, the fire smokes, the bacon is burned; you can't see the mountains for the wet fog; you might as well be home in comfort.