It is to New Zealand, however, that the yachtsman will turn as the paradise of his sport--abounding in harbours, offering every variety of climate from semi-tropical Auckland to the equable temperature of Cook's Strait, and on to the colder harbours of Stewart's Island--he will find as great variety in scenery as in climate. But let him not imagine that after cruising in Australian waters he may trust himself to the tender mercies of the Tasman Sea, or cross to New Zealand in a small yacht. No more terrible sea exists in either hemisphere. Once arrived in the harbour of Auckland, however, the potentialities which lie before the amateur navigator are boundless. As he passes down the coast from the lighthouse on Cape Maria van Diemen, he will see the entrance to the singular harbour of Whangaroa, where masses of limestone rock lay piled one above another, dominated by the cupola-shaped dome of Mount St. Paul. Either this or the historically more interesting Bay of Islands may be visited in a yacht from Auckland. The Bay of Islands is one of the most beautiful yachting bays in the colony. It has a width of ten miles at the entrance, and is divided in two by a peninsula, while, with the exception of the Onslow Pinnacle rock, which has 19 feet on it at low water, it is devoid of all dangers. Here is the scene of the earliest settlement of the colony. In this bay the fleets of whalers, who trafficked in dried and tattooed human heads, and who had dealings of all kinds with the Maories (not always the most reputable), conducted a lucrative business, which has now ceased entirely. Here the first missionaries established themselves, and here was signed the treaty with the natives which brought the islands under the sovereignty of the Queen, a sovereignty which was not to remain undisputed, save after many bloody contests, and after a loss of life and treasure which still burdens the New Zealander with a load of war taxation, happily not imposed on his neighbour of the Australian continent. In this bay many days may profitably be spent in studying the interesting Maori tribes who dwell on its shores, and of whom none have stood more loyally by the English settlers than those who fought under Tamati Waka Nene. Every sort of provision may be obtained in the bay from the once flourishing town of Russell, while a sufficiently good cheap coal may be procured at Opua. It is around the harbour of Auckland, in the Hauraki Gulf, and the Firth of Thames, however, that the perfection of yachting may be enjoyed. As the traveller approaches the earlier capital of New Zealand he will observe how the aptly named Great and Little Barrier Islands protect the Gulf from the heavy seas of the Pacific, and as the steamer wends its way through the islands that dot the Gulf and opens up the land-locked Firth of Thames on one side and the Waitemata Harbour on the other, he will realise the advantages afforded by the situation of Auckland.