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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 6, Issue 8 (April 1, 1932.)

Happy Valleys

Happy Valleys.

There is a farm locally called “Paradise,” on the road which goes out from the town to the lighthouse on the North Head. The homestead lies like a nest in a nook of the hills, many hundreds of feet above the harbour. Above, again, are the cloud-wreathed crags of Otehore, a very tapu place in Maori legend. Far below is the little bay of Onuku, where there is a native hamlet of two or three houses., and the tiniest of steepled churches.

An air of utter stillness pervaded this slumbrous valley the day I saw it. On the beach, where the tide swept in very softly and quietly, was a ruinous old boat.

“Heavened in the hush of purple hills.”—Gerald Massey. (Rly. Publicity photo.) Picturesque Akaroa, South Island, New Zealand.

“Heavened in the hush of purple hills.”—Gerald Massey.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
Picturesque Akaroa, South Island, New Zealand.

We found the only inhabitants of the kaika in a garden-framed house whose verandah was covered with clusters of twining roses. The remnants of the decayed hapu were subdued even with the burden of life by Lethe's stream, and their talk was quiet and low as befitted those who lived in an enchanted place.