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like an albatross -nest. There we found late in the evening our 
hospitable quarters for the night. It was not until next morning 
that I was able to survey more closely the remarkable spot we 
had arrived at. 
Omnnanntnui 
Entrance to Manukau Harbour. 
January 20. The house was built by the Government as the 
station of the pilot for Manukau Harbour. It stands upon a rock 
300 feet high , shelving off towards the sea so abruptly , that the 
passage down to the landing, at the time of my visit, when the 
projected stairs were not yet existing, was a really break-neck 
affair. The building material for its structure and furniture all 
had to be hauled up over the precipice by means of a crane, like 
up a tower. The house is splendidly furnished, and supplied with 
a measure of comfort, one would never expect to find in such a 
Robinsonian seclusion and upon a rock so inaccessible. This spot 
commands a wide view out to the sea. It has been asserted , that 
in perfectly clear weather even the snow-capped peak of the Taranaki 
mountain, at the entrance of Cook Strait, a distance of 140 sea- 
miles, is visible. From the signal station erected upon the oppo- 
site conical rock Paratutai (350 feet high), the signals are given 
to vessels arriving, for the purpose of guiding them safely through 
the channels between the dangerous sand-ba n ks in front of the 
entrance. 
After breakfast we climbed down the steep rock to the beach, 
and walked along the coast northward. The land shelves abruptly 
towards the sea over barren walls of rock, 400 to 500 feet high, 
along which mighty banks of rough , volcanic conglomerates and 
breccias, broken through by basaltic dykes, are laid bare. But a 
broad, flat sand-beach, upon which the waves roll sluggishly, and 
a row of sand-lulls still separate the foot of that stonewall from 
