“My Happiest Holiday”

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1924, Page 7 (Supplement)

“My Happiest Holiday”

Essay open to Girls up to 15 years of age

First Prize :

Jean Davidson,

Vogletown School, New Plymouth

“I think the most enjoyable holiday I J*ave ever spent was four years ago, when my parents and I went for a motor trip up North, visiting Hamilton, Auckland and Whakatane and returning by Rotorua. Leaving home early one pleasant February morning we travelled north, through Waitara and Mokau. This is one of the meet beautiful drives in New Zealand. . The road winds in and out through some of the most fertile districts, while now and then glimpses of gorgeous bush and river scenery may be seen until the beautiful Mt. Messenger is reached.

We stayed at the tunnel, which is on the summit of Mt. Messenger, for lunch, and while partaking of it we gazed with wonder at the glorious view of huge valleys filled with gigantic rimus, ratas, and tree-ferns, which stood out in vivid contrast to the vast hills and steep cliffs, which are alincst entirely covered by native la capodeum, ferns and

.ichens of all descriptions and many other plants too numerous to mention. When we had partaken of a substantial lunch we continued cur journey through Tongaporutu to Mokau, where, as there was no bridge, the river was crossed in a ferry boat. Here, rather an amusing incident occurred with the old mail coach. We cressed in the same ferry as the coach, which was in front of us. . Father drove slowly so', as to give the ferry time: to cross. Whenever the ferry is needed it is sure to be oh the. opposite side of the river, and it takes about twenty minutes to cross. The driver, who was very proud of his coach, passed the .remark to one of his passengers that his coach could beat any car on the road, and. he certainly did, as he drove on to the ferry first and his gears became locked so that we were blocked and could not get off until he got them fixed. While we were waiting, my cousin begged a dinghy from the ferryman and rowed us up the river. Quite close to the ferry-landing is an island covered with bush and on which are many Maori pits, relics of the Maori wars, while at the mouth of the Mokau River, is a stone where the first Maoris are supposed to have fastened their

Next morning we again set out. going over Taumatamaire. Here the scenery was very beautiful in places, but very dangerous, as. the road, which was very narrow, has perpendicular cliffs on one side and huge precipices on the other. At the back of Mr. Old's farm there are huge cliffs - of limestone composed -of a solid mass of petrified oysters, which shows that at some far distant date that part of New Zealand at least must have been submerged by the sea, while at Mr. Eliot's farm there is a natural bridge of limestone spanning a huge ravine, and at Mr. Black's farm limestone cavffi. Although not so large as the Waitomo <av.es they are very beautiful. Passing the Mangalaki Gorge, which is. almost as beautiful as Mt. Messenger, we turned inland a few miles, visiting the Waireri Fails, which are very pretty. Next we came to Te Kuiti, from where the beautiful Waitomo Caves mav be visited.

We arrived at Hamilton late that night, and. being very weary, we retired almost as soon as we arrived. We spent a most enjoyable time in Hamilton, visiting many interesting places, one being the Ruakura Farm belonging to the Government. Here they seemed to grow everything imaginable, the orchards .particularly appealed to me. Here, at Hamilton, we wiled away a whole delightfully lazy week, picnicking, swimming and boa ling on the Waikato

River, motoring over the country, and last, but not least, reading bocks in the spare minutes. We then left for Auckland, via Mercer. If you wish to know what bad roads are like you ought to go by motor from Mer -er over the Rangiriri Range —you would think you were in the -backblocks of Taranaki. We had to slow down to seven miles an hour or be thrown out of the car by the force of each bump. We could not stay as long as we would have liked in Auckland, but we visited the museum and art gallery, but only had time to have a peep at the things. We next visited Ngatea, Thames, and Tauranga. which is a lovely quiet little town, and from where we visited Opotiki. Here there are miles and miles of pohutukawa trees, which were growing wild below Opotiki. Between Opotiki and Whakatane the road passes through Cheddar Valley, which for bush scenery is equal to anything we had yet seen. From Whakatane we went to Rotorua. The lakes have to be seen before you can realise their full beauty, while the drive down Hongi’s Track is simply beautiful. In the middle’ of the drive or track we came across a large bunch of blackberries laden with large luscious berries. As we w:ere very thirsty and had missed the first accommodation house we soon made short work of the berries. Ro-torua itself is more weird and wonderful than beautiful, but the public gardens are beautiful, with tennis courts, bowling greens and gardens laid out with carpet bedding and it is certainly a very charming place to spend a holiday.

The Maori children are very amusing and are great beggars. They never miss a new arrival, dancing hakas and diving in the pools for pennies. After seeing the wonderful hot lakes, sulphur springs, and the wonderful Maori church which has great Maori carvings in it, we drove ovet* to Lake Tarawera, where the awful eruption took place. The people of Rotorua have a few tilings at the tea-rooms which have been unearthed, but everything elee is over-run with blackberries and looks very neglected.

As our three weeks’ holiday was nearly at an end vre began to think of home and we set off again to Mokau. When we arrived there we once more saw our old friend the motor-coach, but this time lying on the eide if the river minus the driver. He had this time reversed his gears on boarding the punt and had forgotten to change them before starting the coach, and he drove off into the river instead of on to terra

firma. We were very much amused at the upturned coach for we still remembered the driver's remarks about his car beating ours. On arriving home we voted our holiday very pleasant, but we all thought that home was the befit •place after all. . SECOND PRIZE. (Mavis Richardson, Ouaero, age II years.) I am writing to tell you about my happiest holiday. Some peo-ple like a town to spend a holiday in, but I don't; give me the ha'ppy-gc-'lucky life of the country. Seme time ago my brother and 1 went to spend a holiday with some dear friends of oure, and as they had five children we did have a time. Picnicking, in the bush is lovely. Have you tried it? The trees and ferns are so pretty and. if you listen you can hear the leayee whispering away to.eachother. Then the birds are. so happy; they sing cheerily away all day, and at sunset they seem to have a concert and make a great noise. 'When we used to sit down the dear little fantails would come quite dose and look so cheeky, and werb not afraid of us. Then the tui would start his song, but he is a shy . fellow and you can’t get near him unless you are very quiet. And you could hear the plump old wood pigeons coping away in the. shadiest places. Once we planned to go down by the creek to have a picnic and we were told by Mr. H to look out for wild pigs. Now, as my brother has an air gun, we thought it great fun. We straight away fiaid we were wild pig hunters, and talked about how we would sneak up on the pigs, and my brother could shoot one with his air gun. Then we would take it home and give -Mr. H a great surprise. Uh, we were brave a.s. we crept along through the scrub and bush. All a-t once my little friend Elsie stopped,-and said: “Whatever is that?”

We all stopped dead. Then we could hejjr a pig grunting loudly and coming after us and making such a noise. Now we forgot how we intended to kill that pig and just flew for our lives u-p the nearest stumps or trees. My brother dropped his gun and beat -us. all up a tree, not that we wasted any time. We scratched our hands and faces and tore our clothes, but we didn't care. As high as we could get was all that troubled us* I and Elsie climbed up on an old stump, shivering and shaking. We were so sure it was that old boar Mr. H ~ had told us about, that ate the lambs, and if it was hungry, you never know, it might fancy us. Anyway we made up (;rt minds to stay up that stura'p all night if no one came. We looked for the boys. There they were, clinging’ like monkeys up the trees.

Soon we could hear the noise coming closer and we were nearly crying. We knew by the noise it made that- it was the old boar. Then we could see it. Oh. didn’t w? shout and laugh. It was a little sandy, tame wild pig that our friends had. Mr. H had let it out and it and the pct lamb had followed •is along. We laughed all the way home and didn’t we tease my brave brother about his gun. And they nearly had fits when we told them at home all about it. I shall never forget.

Then, whe’i evening came, our friend used to take us for rows up and down the river in the Maori canoes. It was lovely and the sunsets were so pretty, sometimes all crimson and gold behind the bush. And some evenings we used to. have a sing-eong and danrted to tunes ths p.ioj ograph playel Oh, we did enjoy ourselves. I could tell you so mu< h more hut I , will take up all the room unless I .stop, but I must tell you what had happened when I reached home. The fairies had left ui? the dearest little brown-eyed baby sister. 1 was so delighted. It was a grand end to the hapjiiest holiday I could ever spend. I may never get another like it.