Thursday, January 16th

We were called at half past three, took breakfast, and got away by half past four. Came up with Torlesse at about eleven miles in the manuka scrub, where he had passed the night in a green bush house that Willy compared to a wren's nest. The way lay throughout over land covered with stones, greater or smaller, and to all appearance very poor. Torlesse's road line was a great help to us as far as the Waimakariri. Fortunately the river was not flooded, and we crossed easily waist deep, encamping and boiling the kettle on the Lyttelton side. This was eighteen miles from Oxford, and we did it, including the half hour breakfast with Torlesse, in six and a half hours, arriving at the right bank of the Waimakariri at eleven o'clock. From thence to Deans's took us three hours more—twelve miles—we arriving there at four o'clock, having left the river at one, so that we kept up the pace pretty well to the end. The sixteenth mile, by milestone and watch, was done in ten minutes. Altogether, after the thirty mile walk, we were well tired when we arrived, and indeed after sitting down, hardly able to stir, we slept at the surveyor's house after a good tea.