Port Nicholson.

Progress, Volume VII, Issue 3, 1 January 1912, Page 947

Port Nicholson.

This harbour has many charming spots easily accessible by ferry boat, The Harbour Ferries Company have a fine service of ferry steamers and maintain an efficient service for the use of travellers to these pleasure resorts. The Company are the owners of the Day’s

Bay House and the Pavilion, a fine building with every facility for tourists. The Company has gone to a very great deal of expense in laying out the pleasure grounds that extend from in front of the hotel past the pavilion. The turf is always kept, well rolled and in good

Company have, at very great cost, cut numerous paths and tracks, leading in a winding maze down gully and up slope, under, towering birches and through spreading fern trees, across streams and beside deep pools of clear cool water, an endless succession of lovers’ walks and

of an old Maori pa, the scene of more than one fierce battle. ■ Many Maori curios have been picked up on this spot from time to time. Another Bay which has its own landing wharf where the steamers regularly call is Rona Bay situated about

condition, a matter much appreciated by the various hockey and tennis clubs. The championship matches in both these games are decided on these grounds. The main attraction at Day’s Bay, however, . that stands out from the

visitor’s point of view is the native bush. With the exception of the twenty or thirty acres laid out in recreation grounds and gardens attached to the Pavilion, the whole of the Bay is covered with fine native bush. Through this bush the

poets’ retreats. Up to the right of the pavilion leads the main track. A few steps and the climber is buried in the foliage and all traces of civilisation vanish. Tall tree ferns of every variety, with tawa, birch, kowhai, rata, clematis, and a hundred other native trees form a green canopy overhead, brightened here and there with the rata’s blood-red blossom, or the delicate white clematis • hanging in long festoons from overhead boughs. Under foot is a carpet of moss and fern. Following up this path a little deviation to the right leads to the reservoir, a view of which we print, where the mountain stream has been dammed and a miniature lake in the hillside been formed. It is a pretty spot, and to add to the picturesque scene weeping willow trees have been planted in numerous places on the banks, and their graceful hanging boughs in long clusters of bright green foliage droop over the water’s edge. This reservoir supplies the pavilion and the hotel with a never ending flow of pure mountain water. After passing the reservoir the visitor enters upon a splendid piece of birch forest, some of the trees being of enormous size. Still further up the path takes a sudden turn, and opening out on to the face of the gully a charming little waterfall is brought to view as deoicted in our illustration. Another path on the left leads the visitor to the Pern Tree Grove. Nothing more typical of North Island scenery could be imagined than the luxuriant growth of the hundreds upon hundreds of tree ferns which line the path on either side. On the northern headland is the site

a quarter of an hours walk from Day’s Bay; this, with Muritai a little further south, form the Borough of Eastbourne. Both places are fast becoming popular resorts for the holidays, and week ends, the bathing is splendid and the bush

behind leading to Gollan’s Valley and the Wainui reservoir should form a most enjoyable days walk and picnic. Seatoun and Karaka Bay on the west side of the harbour are also visited by the steamers and make a most enjoyable outing*.