234 
CHRISTCHURCH 
CHAP. 
down the roaring stream ; and now John Chinaman 
has his sluicing-boxes close beside us, and the cliffs 
in many places are honeycombed in the quest for 
gold. Here and there a chair swung on wires is the 
only means of access to the other side, and later on, 
for a new sensation, I went across in one ; a tipsy man 
had not long before fallen out, 70 feet, into the river 
below. The ducking probably sobered him, and he 
swam ashore, much to everyone’s astonishment. At 
lunch time we came to the picturesque town of Lyell, a 
small mining township cut out of the hill-side, the backs 
of the houses all built up on high piles. Then we 
came to Inangahua junction, a most uninviting-looking 
spot, where the coach roads for Reefton and Westport 
diverge. I was undecided which route to take. The 
most beautiful part of the Buller Gorge was still in front 
of me, but if I had descended it to Westport it would 
have necessitated my remaining there for four days for 
a return coach. We therefore changed horses and I went 
reluctantly on to Reefton, which we reached at six in 
the evening. It is a corrugated-iron-roofed, straggling 
mining town on a flat, with wooded mountains all 
round. 
The mines, which are of quartz, are on the other 
side of these mountains two or three miles away, but it 
was too late to see them. The coach took twenty-eight of 
us and our luggage to the station. The railway from 
here to Greymouth is a private line, and not particularly 
interesting, first through forest clearings and bush lands. 
At Nghara there are large sawmills and an aerial 
tramway, four or five miles long, from the mountains, 
which brings coal to the station. A lady I met 
in the train hearing me say I was going to the hotel, 
invited me to lunch with her at Greymouth, which 
is a seaport town, and of no particular interest, but 
