Page:Emeraldhoursinne00lowtiala.djvu/191

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QUEENSTOWN AND LAKE WAKATIPU
95

behold a transformation! If the fact that it was Sunday occurred to Captain Greendays he did not mention it, and it was not until he, undeterred by weather, had gone off quite happily to climb Ben Lomond, that we remembered. By that time it was too late to do anything but laugh over our forgetfulness and make up for it by going to church.

And before service was over the sun was shining all the more brilliantly for its temporary eclipse. So we finished the morning with a walk in the park, and in the afternoon went for a little cruise in a small launch that took us round the coves and bays close to the town. In one of them we discovered, a strawberry-garden-tea-house, where we feasted right royally on the freshly-picked fruit, our eyes feasting too on the lovely view of lake and mountains, and took a basketful home all for a few shillings.

So though we had to depend on photographs for Paradise we consoled ourselves with the thought that many do not get nearly so near to any Heaven as we were to it on that perfect afternoon.

Illustratiion of two huia birds. The male is in the front standing on a branch, while the female (recognised as such by the extreme curve of the beak) is behind the branch.

Huias