Page 11 - A Walk from Wellington to New Plymouth

daughter about 6 years. The breakfast was of the most substantial kind, hot pork chops and
potatoes, ham, bacon etc and some very good tea as usual in this colony and I never enjoyed a
meal more for I had been travelling long distances and had not eaten anything but biscuits and
potatoes for nearly three days. After breakfast Mr Moon read a chapter and prayers then we sang
a psalm. Mrs Remensneider then played a little on the piano which they bought off Mr
Hursthouse. By this time Mr Smith had arrived with the horses. Mr Woon has a comfortable
house built by the natives, also a good garden and farm and a pair of the finest oxen I think I ever
saw but his groceries and everything he does not grow are brought to him on the backs of the
natives. We passed the remainder of the day very pleasantly in talking and looking over the farm
etc. I found that Mr Woon knew many of the Hackney people and some of the people connected
with the Grammar school. We slept here this night and next morning breakfast and had prayers
as before and my dog had got into the parlour and he began to howl so we turned him out of the
room. After breakfast Mr Woon put a piece of pork, some tea, sugar, bread etc in a basket for us
on our journey. About 10 o'clock we started but not before we had been repeatedly pressed to
stay longer. From Mr Woon's it was 45 miles to Mr Remensneider's, no white man lived
between, so we had to sleep in a native hut made of raupo. Here we lighted a fire and cooked
some of the pork and made tea. Part of the roof was off the hut, but we managed to keep
ourselves dry although it rained heavily. The Irish soldier was still very useful to us in cooking,
lighting fire etc.
Jan 12 At daybreak we breakfasted and resumed our journey. We had a few swamps to cross but
no very bad ones and the soldier walked through the water and poked the bottom with his stick to
see that it would bear a man's weight. Yesterday we travelled only 20 miles but today about 30
and it rained nearly all morning. I kept myself dry with my macintosh. We had very rough
travelling mostly inland and the soldier sprained his knee, so the latter part of the day I let him
have my horse until we got within 3 or 4 miles of Mr Remensneider's and as it was near dark, we
guide and Smith and I pushed forward and arrived in time for tea.”

“The soldier arrived about an hour afterwards as he had been detained by some natives at a
native village he had to pass through because there was a reward offered for a deserter. They
knew him to be a soldier by his carrying a knapsack which was given him when he left the
regiment and he told us that whenever he separated from us, the natives were troublesome from