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A Romance of Lake Wakatipu

Note 11.—The Natural Bridge

Note 11.—The Natural Bridge.

It was on this occasion I came on what was known as the Natural Bridge of the Kawarau, where the rocks overhang the stream so far that one can jump across the gap. I remember that one of the Dunedin papers of that date refused to accord to me the honour of having been the first white man to page 111stand on the natural bridge, because, according to Maori report, the bridge was said to be a complete arch without any gap in the middle. Some years afterwards, when the gold-diggers were wandering up in that direction in thousands, the natural bridge became the chief means for crossing from one side of the river to the other, the gap having been bridged over with plants; and when the editor of the same paper remembered, no doubt, his former unbelief, he must have admitted that I had been correct in thinking that I had been the first white man to stand on the historical bridge and gaze on the turbulent water that lashed itself into foam on the rugged rocks below.—[Notes made in 1860 by an early explorer.]