George Brown: In his own words (A bush honeymoon)

Our honeymoon was as different from the ordinary one in these days, in some respects, as it is possible to imagine. We had to swim two horses across the Waingaroa harbour the evening before we started. Then on the next morning we all crossed in canoes. The horses were saddled, and in a short time my dear wifeÕs friends said good-bye to her for many long years, and we, accompanied and blessed by many prayers, began our long overland journey to Auckland. Our party consisted of a young brother of my wife and two Maori lads. My wife rode one horse ; and the other one carried a large number of bundles, parcels, and boxes, which were all thought to be absolutely necessary, but many of which I often fervently wished had been sunk in the harbour before we started.

I sometimes think I could write a book about that journey. We travelled over a small narrow bush track, which led us along the sea coast ; with long divergences round the head of some immense swamp ; and then again through some portions of dense bush, along which some large mobs of cattle had been driven a few days previously. In some parts of this vile road the mud was almost up to our knees, especially where some great root crossed the track. These roots were often completely hidden from us by the mud, and only became apparent as we tripped or fell over them, and Òfetched upÓ on our hands and knees in a deep pool of liquid mud. We had to camp out to leeward of a flax bush, or in some dirty native house, each of the six nights we took on the journey ; and I need hardly say that the flax bush was by far the cleaner and more comfortable place. When we reached Waikato Heads I got a canoe, and proceeded to swim one of the horses across this wide deep-sea harbour. All went well until we got about halfway across, when the brute refused to swim another stroke. I had her head up on the canoe, and I let her go once or twice, just that she might experience the sensation of drowning ; but she had evidently made up her mind to drown rather than to swim. So I had to haul her head on board again, and the natives who were pulling the canoe had to drag her all the rest of the way. She was a valuable mare, worth in those days about £100, but during that long pull I often wished that I was a rich man, and could have let her go, for she was only shamming after all. When at last I saw the bottom, I did let her go, and she sank very quietly until her feet touched the bottom, when she decided to live a little longer, and so swam to the beach, from which she quietly regarded us with great satisfaction. I returned to the other side in the canoe, but we decided not to risk the other horse. So when we had all crossed the harbour we packed the impedimenta on the one horse, and all walked the rest of the way.

George Brown: In his own words

The Early Years and The Call

The Early Years
and The Call