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Nursing in New Zealand: History and Reminiscences

Chapter XXIII. — Holiday Jaunts. Visit to Franz Josef Glacier

page 108

Chapter XXIII.
Holiday Jaunts. Visit to Franz Josef Glacier.

I see, looking back on the pages, it appears that I was constantly at work. No holidays are mentioned. However, periodically I used to take a trip to Sydney to see my own relatives, and as the usual leave of three weeks for Government officials scarcely allowed time for such distant excursions, I usually waited for two years and had my combined holiday. Even then, the time was short. I used to go on to Melbourne, where one sister lived, and where I had many friends in the nursing world, as well as in my two old hospitals to visit.

I often regret now that I did not visit some of the beauty spots in New Zealand. Much of the country, of course, I did see in my tour of inspection, but these did not take me to places where no hospitals existed.

Once, when on the road, I was tempted to break away and take a short holiday, and telegraphed to my chief for a week's leave. I was on the West Coast, and Miss Inglis, the Matron of Cambridge Sanatorium, and Sister Collins, of that institution, wanted me to join them in a visit to the Franz Josef Glacier. My leave was granted, and off we went. We met at Hokitika, from which town we hired a buggy and horse to drive ourselves to the glacier, Sister Collins, who knew the country, acting as driver and guide. Anyhow, the stable people told us “Peggy” knew the way. We went as far as Ross the first afternoon and slept there page 109 at the quaintest little inn, at which I had breakfasted a year or so ago after an early drive through the bush from Hokitika, where I arrived famished, and polished off porridge and whitebait before starting my inspection of an equally quaint little hospital. On this occasion I again visited the hospital, which by this time, was merely a refuge for old men, probably some of the miners for whose benefit it had originally been erected, for this was one of the gold mining district of New Zealand in past years.

After this visit of inspection I really commenced my little holiday and felt care-free and ready to enjoy myself. After an early breakfast next morning we set off, taking lunch with us; it was early in March and a beautiful day, sunny and bright. We drove along, two in front and one behind hanging on to the little seat, not too comfortable, but no grumbles. The blackberries were ripe and plentiful by the roadside, and we stopped and gathered some. We ate our lunch by the lake side and then went on to Mount Hercules, a beautiful country road through the bush, rimu trees, lance wood, birch, etc., and ferns bordering the path. “Peggy” behaved well and carried us along to the first river which we found a dry bed. On the other side was the accommodation house at which we were to spend the night. Here we had a meal, not by any means equal to that at the Ross Inn; and fairly tired with a long day, retired to bed all in one room.

Alas, we had opened the windows, and little sleep was allowed us by the mosquitoes which poured in; our beds were black with corpses next morning.

We set off in good time to get to our destination- by evening; on our way we had to cross two rivers. One we found like the first, a dry bed, but the next, called the Big Wanganui River, was fairly full. Here it was a dangerous page 110 crossing; we were supposed to wait for a guide; but he was not there, so, seeing a track where a vehicle had entered the stream, we followed and arrived safely on the other side, where our guide had just arrived. We were fortunate in negotiating the crossing safely, for not long after a young clergyman and his sister were washed away and drowned. The river is now bridged, as are the others we had to cross.

We drove on then to Waiho, our destination, and engaged rooms at the only accommodation house, had our dinner and went across the river by a foot bridge to interview and secure a guide for the glacier expediton in the morning. One of the famous guides, the Grahams, lived there, with a charming old white haired lady, his mother. Alec Graham came back with us, and got our shoes ready for work next day, and in the morning, directly after breakfast, calling for us, we set off for a five mile walk through lovely bush and fern, for the glacier. We crossed a swing bridge and climbed up to a hut, where we had some food and tea, and then began the adventure of going on the ice. Exhilarating the cold air was, but the exercise kept us warm. We crossed the glacier, our guide cutting steps for us when necessary, and showing us the deep crevasses with the beautiful greeny blue shadows, into which we gazed in admiration. Reaching the other side, Miss Inglis and Miss Collins climbed up the mountainside, but I did not go so far, and remained resting and enjoying the solitude and the beautiful view of snow-clad mountains around. The mountains were clothed with great rata trees which, in their season, are covered with crimson blossom, and show a lovely colour scheme with the blue and white of the mountains and glaciers. This, unfortunately, was not the season, so the view was more page 111 sombre. Then came the return across the glacier, and our guide took us up and over pinnacles, cutting steps with his ice-axe and giving me, the oldest of the party, help over the worst places. On the other side we had food again, and set off on return to Waiho; we went a different route over a large morraine which needed careful walking, and came to hot springs, where our guide suggested we should have a bath. There was a rough shed with wooden baths over the hot springs, which were boiling, and our guide had to go with buckets to the icy water below to cool it down. The water was much like that of the Rachel bath at Rotorua, and very soothing to our tired limbs. If we could then have hopped into bed, it would have benefited us more, but we had still a good hour's rather rough walk before arriving at the accommodation house. One drawback to the enjoyment of the bath was that it was dark, and except for the occasional gleam of a match, nothing could be seen.

Very tired we were after our strenuous day. We had a meal, but by no means an appetising one, on our return, and then went to our beds.

In these days, I hear there is quite a good hotel at Waiho, with much more comfort, but then, we certainly had to rough it.

Next day we intended to devote to rambling about on our own, sketching for my part, and the others with cameras. We set off and walked again through the beautiful bush to the verge of the glacier, which, unlike most glaciers, comes down to within a short distance of the sea level. Unfortunately, we had not arrived at the Government hut facing- the glacier, when it commenced to rain and we got fairly wet. Inside the hut, there was a fireplace but not much firing, so we found an old gate outside page 112 and some odd bits and made a fire by which we dried our things. There were stores in the hut, such as tea and sugar, and we had brought some food in case we had our lunch, and I was able to get a sketch of the glacier and mountains from the door of the hut, much to the envy of the photographers. On a large, flat stone, suspended above the doorway, was a sketch in oils, by Christmas, so I had an example to follow.

We waited for a time after our lunch hoping the weather would clear, but no luck, so we had to venture forth on our return to the house, and got fairly soaked and had to have our clothes dried by the fire. I was disappointed at not being able to get another sketch, but even in the rain, I hastily got a view between the trees which I was able to work up later into a pleasing memento of our trip.

We had intended to stay another day or so, but as the rain had commenced, and there was a prospect of the river being up and uncrossable, we thought we had better start our return journey next morning.

We set out in our “open buggy soon after breakfast, and drove through the pouring rain which penetrated our burberries and macintoshes, had lunch at a wayside accommodation house, and pushed on again, hoping to be able to cross the Big Wanganui before too late. However, when we arrived at the accommodation house, we were told we could not possibly cross, so we had to stay there. It was the same place where we had nearly been devoured by mosquitoes, but we knew better now than to open the windows. We were advised to wait here for two days, for the arrival of the coach and to leave our buggy and horse to go on by coach. So this we did, having two dreary days in a small place with no pleasant surroundings, and rather rough living.

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The rain ceased, so we were able to go out and walk but as this accommodation house was planted some miles from the river, in a perfectly flat place with no scenery visible, we soon got tired of our stay, and when on Sunday we took the coach and drove to the river and the driver refused to cross, we began to feel our holiday was not a success.

We felt we could not endure the place any longer, and, as we heard that people could be put across the river by a boat, we decided to take that course and again went to the riverside, leaving our buggy there to be sent for, and our small luggage to be brought on by the coach. The swirling torrent of the river rather alarmed us, but we were not daunted and got across safely. Then we set out to walk, crossing a small stream on a log. We had, by the bush telephone, sent messages along the line asking for a conveyance, but being Sunday afternoon, had no success, and thought we would have to plod along about 14 miles to the next accommodation house. We had a thermos and some food with us, and sat by the wayside and had some tea and a rest; I was rather footsore and my shoes had suffered from the ice climbing. I had two pairs with me, so threw one pair away and wore the others for a change. After our rest, we set forth again and to our joy, saw a buggy approaching and hoped it was for us. It was! The man driving was a young workman hauling sleepers for the railway, and having heard of our plight, had borrowed a buggy and put his horse into harness and come to meet us. Thankfully we climbed up. Shortly, we came to slip rails with a man opening them, who invited us to go to his cottage where his wife had tea for us. This was the owner of the buggy, and we were taken into a two-roomed cottage, built on the brink page 114 of a ravine, with a wonderful view over the mountains and valley. We were taken into the little bedroom where, on a bed draped in a completely covering mosquito net, was sleeping a lovely baby. These kindly people gave us a delicious tea and the man telephoned along the line to get a trap to meet us on the other side of the next river, which was swollen by snow from the mountains, and unfordable.

After this, we set off again with our friend in the buggy which, when we arrived at the river, we had to abandon and cross on a swing bridge and then walk along a narrow path above a ravine. Our driver escorted us with a lantern from the buggy, and to our relief, we found another man waiting with a buggy on the other side. We wished to pay our nice man for his help, but he would not accept anything. He knew we were nurses and said maybe he would be a patient some day. Thinking of the sanatorium, we hoped not. A fine and courteous young man and a good example of the young New Zealander.

As we drove along with our new conductor and came near the next accommodation house, we heard sounds of clapping and cheering, and to our astonishment, found it was for us. A party from Hokitika, going to the glacier, were held up there owing to the rivers, and were applauding us for getting through. It was about 9 p.m. by this time, and we were invited in to supper, for which we were not allowed to pay, and after that proceeded on our way. The next river, which had been a dry, stony bed when we had crossed it a few days before, was a foaming torrent and we had to cross on a swing bridge, abandoning our buggy.

Then we had to set out to walk to Ross; I cannot remember how many miles, but I do remember that we page 115 were very tired and could not progress very fast; we sat and rested at intervals, and gradually got to Ross at midnight, glad to creep to our beds. So ended the longest holiday I ever took in New Zealand.

Early next morning I resumed my tour of inspection and got on to Kumara, a funny little township which had boomed in the gold-mining epoch, but had gradually almost faded out. Here was a small hospital, mostly an old men's home, and which has. gradually faded out with its town.

Though this was the longest holiday I have taken in New Zealand, I have had pleasant little week-ends, Christmas holidays and Easter at various places, but, as I said before, I usually spent my longer vacations in Australia.

One delightful time I had there was a sketching trip, with two artist friends and another old friend, to the Blue Mountains. I have some remembrance of this trip, hanging on the walls of my cottage.

Always linked with the plan of a holiday when travelling about on my official duties, my block and water colours were packed in my suit case, and so I have sketches taken in various parts of the Dominion.