The Wanaka is, I believe, the largest and most beautiful lake in New Zealand.  On one side, for nearly the entire length, it was bounded by steep hills, for the greater part clothed with forest and undergrowth crowned by noble promontories and headlands.  Above and beyond were seen the mountains receding away to the snow line in their various and changing colours.  The opposite side was more homely and less grand in outline, but still very lovely.  The low hills were broken by extensive tracts of undulating or flat land, where flocks of sheep or herds of cattle grazed, bordered by sedges and marshes with flocks of wild duck in all the enjoyment of an undisturbed existence.

Looking up the lake to where the mountains seemed to meet, the colouring and grandeur of the scene was sublime.  Since I voyaged up the Wanaka I have seen mountain scenery in many other lands, but I cannot call to mind anything which for beauty and grandeur surpasses that by which I was now surrounded.  It had, may be, a peculiar wildness of its own not elsewhere to be met with, except in the Himalayas, and no doubt much of the effect is due to the exceeding rarity of the atmosphere, and hence the greater extent of landscape which can be observed at once.

CHAPTER XVII.

EXPLORATION TRIP CONTINUED—­WEEKAS—­INSPECTION OF NEW COUNTRY—­ESCAPE FROM FIRE.

It was some time after dark when we arrived at Wynne’s Station, which was situated in a bend behind a promontory, and not observable until close upon it.  The owner was absent, but we were received by the overseer, Mr. Brand, and his assistants, two young gentlemen cadets.  The run, which was recently taken up, was suited only for cattle which grazed on the extensive flats reaching inwards between the mountain ranges and the undulating hills.  The mountain sides were too rough and scrubby for sheep as yet till fires had reduced the wild growth of small brush and induced grass to spread.

The homestead being yet in its infancy, all was crude and rough, but its surroundings were delightful.  It stood on a small flat not yet denuded of the original wild growth which lay in heaps half burnt, or in scattered clumps, the cleared portions being partly ploughed up.  The flat was enclosed by a semicircle of steep hills covered with rocks and brushwood in the wildest luxuriance, and almost impossible of passage even to pedestrians.  The stockyards lay away some distance, and they, with the run generally, were approached by boats, of which three fine ones lay hauled up in front of the homestead.  Indeed, a great deal of the work of the station was done by boat, including the fetching of supplies, bringing timber from the forest and firewood from an island in the lake, and visiting remote parts of the run only accessible inland by a rough and circuitous cattle track impracticable for a dray.