MASON'S BAY, STEWART ISLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16591, 14 January 1916, Page 3

MASON'S BAY, STEWART ISLAND.

By M. M'H.

The ruling forces of Stewart Island have decreed that, the visitors be innoculated with the prevalent disease of laziness, which has attacked all the inhabitants. The symptoms, however, aie so soothing that even the most energetic are soon lulled to a dream of sleep and rest. Occasionally one starts tip wide awake, a vast amount of energy is displayed, and wild walking excursions are indulged in. It is one of these that I am going to tell you. Our usual rising hour had. been between 9 and 10, so a call at 4.30 was most unusual. Still more unusual was the trip in. the motor launch, ibeginning at 5.30 a.m. This early start was necessary in order to get over the sand banks of the river at high tide. As we left the mimaI turo wharf at Golden Bay and sped over the surface of the inlet the sun had already tipped the surrounding mountains and taken the early sharpness from the air. Paterson's Inlet stretched out before us with its miles of water- .tutting into the land, and forming thousands of little bays wooded down to the golden, gleaming sands, or, as in most cases, to the very water's edge. These winding hays were so many and various that tiny islands were often mistaken for the headlands. The rata trees had not then blazed forth into blossom to lend a touch of vivid colouring to the more sombre shades of blues and greys and greens. Mountains from 900 ft to 2000 ft stretched away in the distance. The mountain ridges converge down to the head of the Inlet, or what is called the North Arm, forming a low and sandy area nine miles in widtli, and stretching over to the coastline. Our entrance into Fresh Water River was unmarked, because of the immense area of tall grasses and other rank growth. High sticks alone indicate the course of the current and the presence of sand banks. After many tortnotis windings_ we at last found ourselves with the river bank on either side. Although _ the ' surrounding country was bare ana, in places, barren, the ground in the immediate vicinity of the river was bordered by a luxuriant growth. We sailed for about seven miles up this fairyland river, and then landed arid struck the Mason's Bay trail. The track at first led along the ridges of aNpiece of swamp ground, which was interrupted at intervals by patches of manuka. Presently, however, we came to the Government road, which, with its inches of sand, waa very hard walking. Some of the low surrounding hills have been cleared for sheep, and some attempt has been made to drain the swamp. Large watercourses fun parallel with the road on either side. The Mason's Bay run covers approximately 12,000 acres, and the bush is full of wild cattle. The walk- itself was necessarily monotonous and tiring. The sandhills, with their deceptive distances, were at last reached. Here the road completely disappears in the sand, and a track lea,ds along the base of Island Hill, the summit of which commands a magnificent view of the rolling expanse of sandhills and ocean. The track eventually leads out to the green, grassy slopes beyond the first line of sandhills. After the long desert walk this seemed like and we gladly welcomed the appearance of a horse and a long, low farmhouse—the first signs of civilisation. .We thence proceeded down a well-de-fined road which led through bush., and soon came to a most enticing little hut painted white, with green facings, and reposing in a setting of cool, green grass, with a fitting background of native bush. It was, indeed, an ideal spot to rest in, and the owner gladly welcomed us and had lunch ready in a few minutes. The interior of the cottage , was most immaculate and ship-shape. There was a place for everything, and everything in its place, it was here we first encountered the "mosquito pest," which is such a great drawback to Mason's Bay. However, as there was a fresh breeze blowing, we were exceptionally lucky in not seeing too much of the arch enemy. ' Our entertaining host, who was a sailor, seemed to be a man of many parts, and revealed to our astonished gaze a wellstocked vegetable garden. He and his mate, who was absent at the time of our visit, live alone and, with the exception of one .family seven miles distant, are the sole inhabitants of that vast tract of land. Twenty minutes' walk brought us to tho open sea. The bay is immense, and the first feeling is one of awe at the grandeur so suddenly revealed. We had to pause and look each way before we realised its immensity. The sand, which stretches for nine miles along a hard, smooth surface, looked most tempting for a motor spin. Sandhills rose up beyond the beach, and the mighty rollers of the open Pacific thundered m with a roar and a boom on the sands. These huge rollers seemed to tower to a. great height before they finally fell with a mighty break on the ever-resisting sands. All along the shore as far as the eye could reach myriad flocks of seabirds rested on the sand or circled lpw across the sandhills—gulls, petrels, redbill, snipe, etc. The bay, contrary to expectations, is not in the shape of a semi-circle, but a long, straight stretch of sand, the boundaries of which at dach end are unique. Looking seawards and to the right the "Raggety" or "Ruggety" Hills, -with their frowning, precipitous cliffs, rise to a height of 2000 ft sheer out of the ocean. The coastline here is wild in the extreme, and has well earned its name. Frank Bullen, in his book "The Cruise of the Cachelot," had already fired our imaginations with his graphic description of the perilous pass between those murderess

rocks. On the left the bay is bounded by a chain of islands, forming an anchorage. The outline of these islands is very much serrated, and this adds to the ruggedness of the scene. 'Ihese islands form the only shelter for an anchorage along the nine miles of open beach. The bay is open to all the 'varied winds of the South Pacific-, and has no shelter from its icy blasts in winter. A cold current washes the shores, throwing up it* share of flotsam and jetsam. Golf balls have been picked up, probably washed from distant shores. Our two friends from the cottage are prospectors, and walk up and down the bead) in their searchings for ambergris. We were shown half-cut kerosene tins filled with sand, where the pieces of ambergris werre put to mature and harden. The recent pieces were soft and greycoloured, and scarcely looked fit to be utilised in the maldag of costly perfumes. With reluctant steps we took onr L'.st lingering look at the mighty ocean, and bade farewell totheso-seldom-appreciated-o.nd-Yisited grandeur of Mason's Bay.