We sleep at an accommodation house, and in the early morning go 6 down to the little pier and board the launch which is to take us up the lake. Here we see it lying below one of the tree-clad 7 slopes. In the distance, veiled in cloud, are the Hunter Mountains; here is a nearer view from which we can form some idea 8 of the wonderful colours in which these mountain lakes abound. Further up the lake on the north side we see the Cathedral Peaks, 9 with patches of snow still lying, although it is past midsummer; while all the lower slopes, right down to the water’s edge, are covered with green beech, called birch by the natives, with here and there the scarlet blossoms of the _rata_ tree making a patch of bright colour. Finally we see the end of the northern arm, 10 with Spire Peak shooting up in the background. From Manapouri we drive across to another lake, Te Anau, where we again find a launch. From the northern end of this long, narrow and somewhat uninteresting lake we must walk the thirty miles over the Milford track, if we wish to see Milford Sound, one of the grandest of all the sea fiords. We are now beginning to realise how very much out of the world we are in this corner of the island. Our path lies for many miles through a dense forest of beech. From the roots, and far up the trunks, the trees are covered with mosses, lichens, and small ferns. On the ground are more thick mosses and myriads of ferns great and small. Everything is moist and green in this part of the island, where the perpetual westerly winds bring heavy rain all the year round to the mountain slopes. In fact, we shall be lucky if we finish our walk without meeting with a downpour. Here we see part of our track on 11 the way up to the Mackinnon Pass, with the dense bush below and 12 the snow-capped mountains above. All the way through the trees we have glimpses of cataracts, seaming the rugged slopes above the limit of the forest. Many of the torrent beds are dry now, like the one in front of us, but we can easily imagine the force 13 of the flood water from the appearance of the stones and debris strewn about it.