Dined in
Lyttelton with several of my fellow-passengers, who evidently thought it
best to be off with the old love before they were on with the new, i.e.
to spend all they brought with them before they set about acquiring a
new fortune.
Then went and helped Mr. and Mrs. R. to arrange their new
house, i.e. R. and I scrubbed the floors of the two rooms they have
taken with soap, scrubbing-brushes, flannel, and water, made them
respectably clean, and removed his boxes into their proper places.
Saturday. - Rode again to port, and saw my case of saddlery still on
board. When riding back the haze obscured the snowy range, and the
scenery reminded me much of Cambridgeshire. The distinctive marks which
characterise it as not English are the occasional Ti palms, which have a
very tropical appearance, and the luxuriance of the Phormium tenax. If
you strip a shred of this leaf not thicker than an ordinary piece of
string, you will find it hard work to break it, if you succeed in doing
so at all without cutting your finger. On the whole, if the road
leading from Heathcote Ferry to Christ Church were through an avenue of
mulberry trees, and the fields on either side were cultivated with
Indian corn and vineyards, and if through these you could catch an
occasional glimpse of a distant cathedral of pure white marble, you
might well imagine yourself nearing Milan.
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