( 5 ) 
On one occasion the rope which pulled the cage on one side broke, and the passengers 
were dangling by the other over the roaring torrent until assistance came. 
When we landed at the opposite side we entered a bush tramcar drawn by 
one horse, a very primitive arrangement, on rails of wood. After travelling some 
distance we got into another coach which was full of Chinamen, and reached 
Greymouth in the evening, very glad to get once more into a comfortable hotel. 
The next morning we started by tram again. We had it all to ourselves, and 
enjoyed the quiet, smooth, plodding along through a narrow lane in the bush, always 
the same avenue stretching away in the distance, whether we looked behind or 
ahead, there were tall forest trees, and masses of creepers, ferns, mosses, lichens, 
and flowers, which I longed to gather, but we could not stop. Then we went 
on by coach again, driven by a young gentleman, son of a military man, who 
entertained us by his experiences till we reached Hokitika, where we stayed four 
days waiting for the coach to take us across the mountains to Christchurch. It 
rained of course, most of the time ; it always does at Hokitika. But one clear 
lovely morning we had a splended view of Mount Cook, and the Southern Alps 
covered with snow in the far distance, standing out hard and clear against the 
sky, touched with pink and yellow by the rising sun. 
We thought we had secured the lower box seats for the journey to the Otira 
Gorge, but found ourselves mistaken, and had to be content with the upper ones 
on the top of the coach, high up, with our feet even above the driver’s head, and 
the horses in the depths below, with nothing to prevent us from slipping off. After 
one long very steep hill, down which we went full gallop, I gave in and went 
inside, until a lady down below kindly exchanged seats with me. The first part 
of the journey was comparatively easy, with a good road between wooded moun- 
tains, already becoming red with the Rata flowers {Metrosideros lucidd), and over 
streams, some not bridged, down we went at full speed, and up the other side, 
and woe betide us if the springs broke. About 8 a.m., we came to a small mining 
village in the midst of the forest, where we had breakfast. We drove through 
beautiful scenery till we reached the Taipo, or Devil River, where we all had to 
leave the coach and cross by a long narrow swinging bridge, which was rather a 
trial, as it oscillated so much. We got into the coach again on the other side, 
and to judge by the way the luggage was mixed up in the inside, it was well 
we had some other means of crossing. 
About 2 p.m., we arrived at the Otira Gorge, where there is a small inn by 
the side of the river, which is very broad there, or rather the bed of it is, as there 
are two channels, the rest is all stones. We dined here, and the other people 
went on by the coach, but my niece and I stayed till the following one, four days 
later, in order to obtain the flowers on Arthur’s Pass, which is an excellent place 
for Alpine plants. I prospected the river bed and side that afternoon, and found 
