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273 CHAPTER XX.

icy breath of the South Antarctic was causing finger-tips to tingle as we steamed away from Invercargill in the good ship Wairarapa, and left the shores of Maoriland to fade away in the blue haze of distance. What a feast of picturesque grandeur and beauty had we not stored up in memory! What visions of the wondrous glory of the Almighty's creative skill did we not recall as we pondered over the incidents of our all too short summer holiday! And yet we had not half exhausted the marvels of this land of wonders. The weird solemnity of Lake Taupo, with its volcanic eruptions and abysmal activities; the awful majesty and rugged grandeur of the Alpine gorges and passes; the labyrinthine intricacies and astounding sinuosities of the West Coast Sounds, with their startling contrasts of bluff and craggy