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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 45

Australia to New Zealand

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Australia to New Zealand.

Now that such magnificent steamships as the Union Company's powerful boats are trading regularly between Australia and New Zealand, a run across from the great Island Continent to her smaller sister, the Britain of the South, is a most enjoyable trip. Instead of being cooped up in a narrow cabin, as was the case in former times, the traveller can take his ease in an elegantly furnished saloon, or promenade on a spacious quarter-deck. All the comforts of a first-class hotel surround him, and the exhilarating effect of a short and rapid sea-voyage, give additional zest to the excursionist, and prepare him for the romantic scenes which await him on this side of the water. In making preparations for the journey he has the choice of two routes. He can proceed from Sydney direct to Wellington or Auckland, or he can leave Melbourne for the Bluff. As it is our intention, for convenience sake, to take our tourist by this latter route, in order that he may have an opportunity of taking a sweep, as it were, of the colony from the South to the North, we will proceed to give him all necessary particulars connected with his excursion by this track. Of course he is at liberty to use his own discretion in the choice of routes, and it is quite as easy for him to proceed from Sydney to the North Island as from Melbourne to the South Island of New Zealand. The principal reason why we select the Melbourne route is that the tourist may ascend by gradations from one wonder to another, until he reaches those most marvellous scenes of all, the White and Pink Terraces in the North Island. It is optional with him to return by the Sydney route, so that in fact it is as broad as it is long which plan he decides upon pursuing in setting out upon his trip. The run across from Melbourne to the Bluff occupies about four days and a few hours, and the passage page 16 is generally considered an exceedingly mild one. The first land sighted as a rule is the S. W. Coast of the South or Middle Island. Towering peaks, crowned with snow, rise up from the ocean's edge in hoary magnificence, and form a striking and impressive picture of bold and rugged grandeur. The Solanders, a group of high pillar-like rocks standing like lonely sentinels in the sea, appear in sight as the steamer comes close to the mainland. Then Stewart's Island is passed, and next the bleak headland of Bluff Harbour is approached. A few minutes more and we are anchored by the Carapbelltown wharf.

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