Page:Through South Westland.djvu/234

142 all attended to and made welcome; the delicious trout alone would have made an excellent dinner, but in addition there was turkey and black-currant pie—we made up our minds to spend a day or two here before we started on our further journey. Besides, we had to seek some kind of buggy to convey our stuff to camp. We found all had come safely, and awaited us in the hotel store.

Next day we rode out seventeen miles to try to get information as to the whereabouts of a hut, which we heard lay some thirty miles up the Matukituki valley. Of information we got little or none, and decided we must push on to a settler’s en route, who was reported as having been further up than anyone in Pembroke. This was Mr. Ross, and when we returned to the hotel we found he had been to see us, and left a pressing invitation to call at his house and lunch there on our way.