Great Barrier Island is larger than the Isle of Wight, being 21 miles long. It is about eight miles eastward of the Little Barrier, and possesses in Port Fitzroy one of the finest harbours in New Zealand. Yachts enter by a channel 1-1/4 mile wide, pass under a remarkable rock resembling the Duke of Wellington's head, and come to Governor's Pass, a narrow channel, 178 feet across, which opens out into an inner harbour three miles in length and more than half a mile wide, surrounded on all sides by high mountains which give complete security from every wind. The harbour is full of fish of every kind, from the little New Zealand herring to the flat stingaree resembling an enormous skate with a formidable spiked tail. Unless the fisherman cuts this off before he proceeds to deal with the fish, he may find one blow from it compel him to seek for several weeks an asylum in the Auckland Hospital. If the yachtsman has on board a seine net, he may realise something of the miraculous draught of fishes mentioned in the Bible. Let him also bring his rifle, for the island is swarming with wild goats, and if he can steel his heart against the piercing and humanlike screams to which they give utterance when wounded, he may, by getting up to the highest ground and stalking them down the mountain-sides, secure more than he will find it possible to get back to his yacht, be he never so impervious to powerful odours. He will, moreover, earn the gratitude of the settlers by so doing, for the goats eat not a little of that pasture which would more profitably be utilised in affording sustenance to the domestic sheep of the island farmers. Many years ago Selwyn Island, at the entrance to the harbour, was stocked with the large silver-grey rabbit, and a good day's shooting may still be had among them, though the skins are no longer of the great value they were when first acclimatised. Having explored the creeks of the Waitemata, which open into the harbour of Auckland to the north, the yachtsman may proceed to cruise in the southern waters of the Hauraki Gulf. On his way he may run in for a few hours to one of the Maori villages, where he will find some very well-to-do natives, owners of valuable property close to Auckland, but who still practise all the old-fashioned Maori customs of cooking and manufacture. He will be interested, too, in the long war canoe with its carved prow, one of the few now remaining in New Zealand.