TAKAPUNA IN MAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13497, 25 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

TAKAPUNA IN MAY.

BY ROSLYN.

Already the herald frosts have signalled the near approach of winter, but there is no hint of his austere reign in these rolling fields and thickset hedges. /: Well-beloved of Tane is this retreat of fair Leisure; on the J right hand and :■■.; on the left is the putting .;■ forth of his power, in ' tapering Norfolk pine, slim, yellowing poplars, or umbelliferous, ' ever-dear . ; pohutukawa. Leave the .coach, ana passing through this wooden gate, follow this, grassy way that leads down under many a goodly tree to the edge ;of the grass-grown cliff. :/// Far from tne madding crowd, yet not too remote, for two unpretentious cottages tell of life—even if it be but in the summertimeon this coign of / vantage, arid 'a king need " wish for no better seaside resort. . ' ' i • , '■■

■/The gnarled: pohutukawas-hang over the scarped arid rugged _ cliff, , high above the! dark blue tide, that rolls and sighs in summer, or foams and thundera-in. >vinter> up. this channelled way between-T&'kapuna beach and yonder conical mountain. , ; Its j rugged slope , familiar/ curve *, so dear to tne heart of the Aucklander that, globetrotter that/he, is,/he -would when far distant baiter Ben Nevis, Vesuvius, or Olympus itself for his own old Rangitoto. /

"The stately ship sails on to its haven under the hill," or/ the outward-bound • on the summer ; nigiht; glides by, ; a •.; ship of stars, a thing of mystery and fascination, using some secret spell :to trace:a' swift, sure X path /^throughi '..that// awful,/' gulfing, moaning element, creeping up/here to our very , feet, - fawning, \. caressing /the . ground on which we stand, and i yet able with one surge of, its surpassing, might to /sweep I this fcir promontory of ; ; every/ trace of I man and the results' of fifty strenuous years. :. " Thus far shalt thou come, and no further,* and here shall thy proud waves be-stayed." , ■ The incoming tide, with its accelerated spray and murmur, has reached high-water mark, the boat rocks idly at its. mooring, the bare-legged children shout and scream as they dance in .'-; the foamy.line of surf— and the tide has turned. \.- . , •

The ; seagull wheels with widespread wings between the blue,' or lies like & cradled thing at rest in the arms of a sunny sea; the westering sun has tinged to pink the purple—the unforgettable ; purple —of Rangitoto, the moon 'is/ hiding: away behind the far,, dim Coromandel ranges, but in a little, when she has raised/her silver lamp, and lent its fairy glamour to the scene, it would surely be a dead heart and a dull eye, that would not responsively throb and glisten. - v --

! Leaving the pohutukawas and the cot-/ i tag© by the sea, let us get back to the j road, and ramble. There'is a remoteness I in the atmosphere; which breathes of ad- •( vancement and leisure—-of ; money: if you [will not of wealth. These high hedges, ; showing even yet a rare harvest of ruddy, ! over-ripe, / hawthorn , berries,. must /, have j been a veritable poet's/ dream in blossomi time. The .tropical boscage billowing i above the hedges, the goodly growth of j ancient • trees, the withdrawn aloofness of I the dwellingsalbeit 2 some of them in j point of ; architecture are as blots on the landscape—indicate that > the /hands of Time have moved on the Auckland dial since they were set at the immigrant's I home. There, is a glory of • cultivation ,in j an -opulence of yellow autumnal blossom— i a sigh for the past as we pass a patch -of j tau-growing tea-tree and a remnant of demolished native bush. Happily the pony is j elderly, meditative, and disposed :to h reflection. Speak of reflection, /and look doAAii now from this northerly road on the | sapphire that Nature set on the bosom of jTakapuna.. • The deep, calm,, mystic lake, with its girding of fair homes and- verdurous elegance; the scene of countless I fetes and festivities; so quiet,/ so peaceI fully it lies beneath us, and at the same | time, through this charming vista, beyond that narrow strip of country, gleams the blue sea, and again Raneritoto : We turn; down No Man's Road, apparently, yet fol-j I lowing the scent of the sea. The wheels roll noiselessly over the '■' grass, but the going is heavy for the patient pony; so I we get out and leave it to its tenderhearted mistress, while we stumble - un-1 gracefully toward the sea over the drifted dunes, bound ' with buffalo grass and mesembryarithemum, showing here and there a yellow or pink bloom. Right : op-1 posite, out in j the lifting blue, is Tiri, and past it the road that leads us to the world, the road by which th© -world comes to us in our Ultima Thule, by which the peerless cable of Empire links us out of loneliess, and sends the Mother-word that cheers her island-born. '"■■ -V''."',

i / The wind blows in from the sea j'j regret- | fully, with unspoken thoughts and associa|tions evoked by that, mighty magician, and | yet a backward glance, ; we«stumble over the drifted sand again : towards the buggy with two . mesembiyanthemuiris and this Memory of May, v