256 DUNEDIN chap. 
was ; the tall mountains rising against the bright blue 
sky, the deep ravines clothed in sombre garb of native 
beech, and the little village below with sunlight on the 
roofs of its white houses. - 
Next morning every mountain was capped with 
snow as we left Queenstown for Lake Wanaka ; and 
on reaching the long winding zigzag road up the 
Crown Range, I was glad of the excuse to walk, for -it 
was bitterly cold, and the sleet was driving down on 
the mountain-tops. Now and again through the lifting 
clouds away down in the distance we saw the blue 
waters of the lake, the ragged pinnacles of the 
Remarkables, Ben Lomond, the winding Shotover and 
Kawarau Rivers, and small homesteads dotted about in 
the fertile valleys below. On the other side of the 
range we drove for miles between high barren hills, 
along the Cadrona Valley, crossing and recrossing the 
Clutha River, where the rocky bed has been turned 
over and over again in the unceasing search for gold. 
But most of the old water-races are now broken, the 
mud hovels are in ruins, and only an occasional China- 
man is seen at the town itself. But the sides of the 
mountains are all being tunnelled, and the town owes 
its existence and prosperity to the rich finds of gold 
here some years ago. Before reaching Pembroke, 
Mount Aspiring suddenly came in view with its 
curiously broken line of peaks. Two or three 
more miles and Lake Wanaka lay before us, sur- 
passing, I think, in beauty Lake Wakatipu, though 
the approach and the town itself are neither so 
picturesque nor so large. 
There were no tourists in the primitive hotel, though, 
later on, two splendid specimens of young Englishmen 
turned up, fresh from a week's camping . out at Lake 
Hawea. They had had capital sport, they said, but 
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