The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 8 (December 1, 1929)
New Zealand's Northland
New Zealand's Northland
There is a newness, a brightness, a varied beauty about New Zealand's northern peninsula that impresses the mind to a more marked degree the further north the traveller proceeds. It is a land of good cheer and happy people. It is fitted to be the permanent home of the Christmas family. Improved transport has here brightened prospects already made bright by the bountiful hand of Nature. Everywhere the rate of progress recorded makes the wonders told of Aladdin's Lamp seem but the weak efforts of an impostor.
It is a country rich in natural beauty and historical romance, and to these are added a soil and climate from which other wealth, though of a more perishable kind, is being increasingly won. Here the native element is more in evidence. Here are legends and evidences of age-long wars among the Maoris for the possession of healing waters or favoured valleys, from Ngawha Springs to Kirikiri—wars conducted with a zeal and joy in fighting that showed how the people's surplus energy—the pent-up steam of a strength-giving environment—found vent in happy killings all along the hills that still show miles and miles of hand-hewn slopes where ancient fortifications defended the pas of the tribes.
To the visitor it is a land of many delights, while it exerts a strange and powerful magnetic force on all its children, so that few who have lived on this happy peninsula are content to remain elsewhere.
Asked for a selective opinion upon the natural wonders of the North, one would give pre-eminence to the 90-mile beach, the Mangamuka Valley, and the Bay of Whangaroa.
The “beaches of Lucannon, before the sealers came,” had no charm to equal that degree-long stretch of sand of the alleged “90-mile,” which strikes northwest in an unbroken line from near Kaitaia.
The forest stretches of the Mangamuka Wonder Valley are so beautiful that they even lessen the overpowering effect of the grandeur found among the Kauris of Waipoua; while the magnificence of Whangaroa harbour, with its waterfalls, islets, bays, and coves, its brooding stillness, its warm and wooded beauty, is far beyond the power of brush or pen to portray—it beckons as the absolute ultimate in the world's treasure trove of natural beauty.
Fish of all kinds abound. This probably accounts for the success and popularity of the haangi of the North—the Maori means of cooking for a feast. After sampling the contents of these, one concludes very definitely that the fleshpots of Egypt contained nothing so enticing as the fish-pits of the Maoris. Here Bacon's advice is carried out to the limit—use fasting and full eating, but rather full eating.
New Zealanders who want a change of scene, and visitors from overseas, should realise the advantages for holiday-making which the Northland possesses. It is only in recent years that rail access has been available into the upper portions of the Peninsula, and for this reason the country has been rather a terra incognita to the average traveller. Now, however, the place is easily reached by good train services from Auckland City to the railheads at Okaihau, Opua and Kirikopuni, while beyond these points regular car services by road, and launches by bay or river, are available.
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New Zealand'S Railway Chief.
Mr. H. H. Sterling, General Manager of Railways, snapped on alighting from the “Limited” Express at Thorndon Station, Wellington.
In the future development of tourist traffic within the Dominion the Northland, with its many charms, is sure to claim increasing attention.
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Railway Booking Facilities Improved
Another extension of the travel facilities for the general public is announced by the General Manager of Railways. Up to the present the issue of tickets and the reservation of seats and sleeping berths have been restricted to a period of fourteen days preceding the day of travel. This restriction was removed on the 2nd December, and prospective passengers on ordinary trains or holiday excursion or other reduced-fare trains, are now able to get their tickets and seats or berth reservations at any time before the day of travel.
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Town and Country Conter
When Mr. L. A. Paish, British Trade Commissioner in New Zealand, returned to Wellington from Auckland, after travelling on the Commerce Train in the Auckland district, he said how deeply he was impressed by the advantages of the tour to both town and country. “Of course there were formal speeches and abundant hospitality,” said Mr. Paish (in describing his visit to a representative of the Wellington Evening Post). “But,” he added, “it was the getting together, the little talks between the primary producer and the business man, that struck me as being so beneficial for both of them. Not only was the Pokeno railway route visited, and so on to Te Aroha, but much time was devoted to Northern Auckland, the potentialities of which strongly appealed to the business men; indeed, to some of them the country's productivity came as a revelation. It was all strenuous going for the party on the train, but I am sure it was worth it. This commerce train movement cannot fail to be productive of an immense amount of good, not only in enabling the city to obtain first-hand information of the country, but to strengthen the bonds of sympathy between the people of the urban and rural districts. To me, personally, it was an invaluable opportunity of seeing the country and getting a clear view of its conditions and possibilities.”
Peregrination charms our senses with such unspeakable and sweet variety that some count him unhappy that has never travelled.—Burton.
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“How sweet it lies! how still and cool!
Half shaded by the crag on high,
A tiny place, a crystal pool,
Yet with its own dark depth of sky.“—Robert Buchaman.
Reflections in a pool on the way to the Silica Springs, Tongariro National Park, North Island, New Zealand. (This national playground is reached from National Park Station, on the Main Trunk Line.)