Station Life in New Zealand

Mount Torlesse, October 1867. We are staying for a week at a charming little white cottage covered with roses and honeysuckles, nestled under the shadow of this grand mountain,...

Broomielaw, August 1867. I have had my first experience of real hardships since I last wrote to you. Yes, we have all had to endure positive hunger and cold, and, what I found m...

Broomielaw, December 1866. It is too late to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year in this letter. In order to allow them to reach you in time I should have sent my go...

Broomielaw, February 1868. Since I last wrote to you we have been nearly washed away, by all the creeks and rivers in the country overflowing their banks! Christchurch particula...

Broomielaw, December 1867. I am quite sorry that the season for setting fire to the long grass, or, as it is technically called, "burning the run," is fairly over at last. It ha...

Broomielaw, April 1867. I have nothing to tell you this mail, except of a rather ridiculous expedition which we made last week, and which involved our spending the whole night o...

Waimate, May 1867. In one of my early letters from Heathstock I told you that the Hurunui, which is the boundary of that run, marks the extreme north of the Province of Canterbu...

Broomielaw, November 1868. This will actually be my last letter from the Malvern Hills; and, in spite of the joy I feel at the hope of seeing all my beloved ones in England, I a...

Christchurch, January 1866. I am beginning to get tired of Christchurch already: but the truth is, I am not in a fair position to judge of it as a place of residence; for, livin...

Lake Coleridge, February 1867. A violent storm of wind and rain from the south-west keeps us all indoors to-day, and gives me time to write my letter for the Panama mail, which...

Broomielaw, January 1867. You tell me to describe our daily home-life and domestic surroundings. I dare say it: will appear to be a monotonous and insignificant existence enough...

Port Phillip Hotel, Melbourne. September 22d, 1865. .... Now I must give you an account of our voyage: it has been a very quick one for the immense distance traversed, sometimes...

Broomielaw, November 1866. We have lately made a much longer excursion than those I told you of last, month, and this time have been fortunate in meeting with fine weather above...

Broomielaw, June 1867. We reached home quite safely the first week of this month, and I immediately set to work to prepare for the Bishop's visit. We met him at a friend's house...

Christchurch, Canterbury, N. Z. October 14th, 1865. As you so particularly desired me when we parted to tell you _everything_, I must resume my story where in my last letter I l...

Heathstock, Canterbury, November 13th, 1865. I have just had the happiness of receiving my first budget of English letters; and no one can imagine how a satisfactory home letter...

Broomielaw, September 1866. I am writing to you at the end of a fortnight of very hard work, for I have just gone through my first experience in changing servants; those I broug...

Broomielaw, July 1866. We are now in mid-winter, and a more delicious season cannot well be imagined; the early mornings and evenings and the nights are very cold, but the hours...

Broomielaw, June 1868. The autumn has passed away so quickly that I can hardly believe the winter has reached us so soon--the last winter we shall spend in New Zealand. I should...

Broomielaw, October 1866. This ought to be early spring, but the weather is really colder and more disagreeable than any which winter brought us; and, proverbially fickle as spr...

Heathstock, December 1st, 1865. All I can find to tell you this month is that I have seen one of the finest and best wool-sheds in the country in full work. Anything about sheep...

Melbourne, October 1st, 1865. I have left my letter to the last moment before starting for Lyttleton; everything is re-packed and ready, and we sail to-morrow morning in the _Al...

Christchurch, March 1866. I must begin my letter this mail with a piece of domestic news, and tell you of the appearance of your small nephew, now three weeks old. The youth see...

Broomielaw, Malvern Hills, May 1866. I do not like to allow the first Panama steamer to go without a line from me: this is the only letter I shall attempt, and it will be but a...

Ilam, April 1866. We leave this to-morrow for the station in the most extraordinary conveyance you ever saw. Imagine a flat tray with two low seats in it, perched on four very h...