Lunch on the Napier Bluff

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XVII, Issue 3, 1 July 1928, Page 116

Lunch on the Napier Bluff

One radiant frosty morning- I ate my lunch on the to]) of the Bluff, where I could listen to the chirruping chorus of the crickets, the twittering of the birds, and the buzzing of the bees. There were so man}' circling around a shrub beside me that the short recurring- break — caused while some of the tireless little insects plunged into the hearts of the flowers — gave to the purring sounds of those on the wing the effect of exquisite part singing, to which, sunlit, shaggy bodies, hairy legs and prismatic wings rhythm etically dangled.

From an overhanging twig, to which it was fastened by a gray thread, its outside rough-casted with minute fragments of leaves and wee gray twigs — that were all arranged with their tapering ends towards its cxit — its inside cosily lined with the finest, softest silk, swung a tiny parchment basket. Although so delicately made, this was the impregnable home of one of our clever little basket moths. While I was bus}' cutting off the twig to which the basket was attached, a Red Admiral alighted beside me. Proudly tilting up its head and hennatinted feelers, it began to fan its navy blue, black, white and red spotted wings over its furry brown body, as though courting my admiration; but before I could satisfy my curosity. the glowing creature flitted rapidly away, making a vivid crimson Hash m the sunshine.

The bank on which I sat was perforated with holes leading into long slender pits, numerous hard balls of fine clay were scattered about the weather-beaten ones, which resembled broken columns, giving to the bank the appearance of a

turret ed fortress riddled with cannon balls, of which, some were still embedded m the crumbling walls. Nor were the worms the only occupants of this miniature castle, for glistening ants scaled its walls and disappeared m the holes; a red spider crouched m one of the broken turrets ; a black one was weaving a web across several of the doors, and at its base was a forest of acasia seedlings, their young puce leaves set off by a boundary of fine moss, which, under the magnifying lens, looked like a fairy forest of young larches.

As I ate, ni}' eyes explored the wide sweep of sparkling blue sea before me, where lay big ocean liners with smaller ships moored beside them, while others were running to and fro laden with frozen meat and bales of wool. There were many small craft loading at the Breakwater: fishers m motor boats beyond it, and seagulls with heliographing wings foraging among the waves. These, boomed and bounded, near by. like joyful dancers, and further on seemed to dash themselves at the foot of the green hills, finally disappearing m a white mist, further round the Bay.

At this table of good things that Nature had so bountifully provided. my mind slowly feasted, until rudely drawn away by a shrill whistle blown at the Breakwater. This was to recall a gang of workmen to their task of loading and unloading the waiting lorries. I, too— my heart echoing the music of crickets, bees and birds, and radiant with the glory of the morning — hastened my return to duty, m the sick-room.

— E.M.G.