A Matron's Holiday

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XIV, Issue 2, 1 April 1921, Page 72

A Matron's Holiday

"1 returned from my annual leave feeling much benefited by it. I spent one week about the river, launching, etc., two weeks 'resting* on a farm, a little over a week at Russell, and a flyingtrip to Kawakawa and Whangarei. It was all new country to me, and I enjoyed it all. "Travelling is generally enjoyable to me, and the 'farm' was the greatest change 1 could have had, the people I was boarding with being very nice. On one of my river trips I went to Kohukohu for the night, and left by the ' cream launch' (' Cream Boat, Where Are You Floating/ we sang, instead of 'Dream Boat'). At 3 a.m., it was very pretty, winding up the little creeks m the dawn. Rangiahua was our first destination, where we arrived m time for breakfast. Rangiahua is one of the upper reaches of the Holdanga River, and is a big timber place, as one realises when passing the ' booms' (timber). "We left the hotel after breakfast m a buggy, and drove about five miles up

the riverside, and then igot into a fiat-bot-tomed punt drawn by horses. Where the water is quite shallow, the horses jusl draw the punt over the riverbed; ii: places the horses are walking with the water up to their girths and the punt just floats behind them. Where the water is deep the horses swim, which lends the charm of excitement, and the punt drifts, rather, over their backs. There is a chance of the horses tipping- the passengers into the deep as they (the horses) scramble out of the water. "We went some miles up the river ie this novel way, and the bush scenery was very beautiful, much more so than the 'Mangamuka/ which is rather noted for its natural beauty. The latter can be worked by launches, but the upper reaches of the Rangiahua are too shallow m places. There is still a fair amount of kauri bush up there, and some very fine trees amongst them. We arrived back at the hotel for tea, after a very pleasant day. Our trip was not a regular one, and was arranged privately."