The history of early Lyttelton from a social aspect

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Master of Arts
Publisher
University of Canterbury. History
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
1929
Authors
Hunter, Margaret
Abstract

Half way down the east coast of New Zealand’s’ South Island there is a large peninsula, well wooded and indented with lovely bays and inlets full of shadow and sunlight. But in the matter of harbours and anchorage Nature has been liberal to little purpose. On the southern side there is a sheltered harbour, but mountain-locked; on the east, several bay divided from the plains country by miles of precipitous ridges; and on the north lie two far-flung harbours with common headland between them, the upper one much larger and running deeply into the land where the peninsula joins the mainland. These two harbours are alike in that they are bare of bush and woodland except for scattered remnants in little mountainous ravines or single patches clinging in odd places to the frowning rocks. They are alike, too, in the half rugged, half velvet appearance of the mountains that rise steeply from their waters, green in spring but mostly tawny colour that holds the varying atmospheric transformations and takes on added hues with the sunrise and the sunset, with the mist or with the clouds. The lower harbour is not more than half the length of the other, and much narrower; it is studded with small bays, not as a rule of a very decisive character, and one small island about three quarters of the way down almost touches a small promontory. The harbour is roughly a long narrow gulf with little variation on width except a slight narrowing at the head and a corresponding widening at the mouth.

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Citation
Keywords
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
Copyright Margaret Hunter