Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "No point of either North or South Island over 75 miles from the ocean. While Australia is a very dry continent having but a limited rainfall, no high mountains, and consequently no large river systems; New Zealand is comparatively a moist county, requiring little or no irrigation for its crops. The Wanganut River in North Island is famed for its beauty. For the greater part of 140 miles it runs in a deep canyon, which it has cut through hardened volcanic ash to a depth of form 200 to 500 feet. The walls of the canyon are in many places almost perpendicular and everywhere they are very steep. Both sides are covered with rich green vegetation, conspicuous amongst which are tree ferns, rising in some instances to a height of fifty (50) feet, and bearing aloft surprisingly graceful umbrella-shaped fronds. In some places along the course of the river the banks are so steep that the natives are obliged to go to and from their canoes by means of ladders."
Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "All things considered, this part of New Zealand may be regarded as equal to the Swiss Alps in scenic interest, - and even more interesting in the amount and beauty of the various bodies of water, and in the number of cataracts which abound in these "Alps of the Western Hemisphere."
Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "This is an amazingly beautiful lake; more than a thousand feet above sea level, about fifty miles long and exceedingly deep. Azure blue, cobalt blue and the blue of coral seas are seen in its waters; and on the highest summits of the practically treeless ranges that wall it in. snow exists at all times of the year. Geologists say that Waktipu occupies the bed of a glacier, but according to Maori mythology it was dug with a spade by Chief Rakahaitu. Gooding says "If this be true, Rakaihaitu was the greatest navvy New Zealand has ever produced and had he lived today he would have been the very man to dig the Panama Canal."
Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "To the north of Lake Taupo is the celebrated 'Hot Lakes' district. Rotorua is the railway terminus, and here are many hot springs, geysers, and mud baths. Lake Rotomohana, at the foot of the volcano of Tarawera, is actually boiling at that portion of its shore where formerly existed the 'Pink Terraces'. This pumice-covered region was supposed to be infertile and supports only a useless 'manuka' vegetation, but it is now being brought under cultivation by scientific methods. The natural wonders attract thousands of visitors."
Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "Almost entirely surrounded by mountains, studded with countless wooded islands, and indented with lovely little bays, Manapouri, or perhaps more correctly manawa-popore - the lake of the "throbbing heart" - is a dream of beauty, a joy forever. This is the deepest lake on South Island, having a depth of 1,460 feet, its bottom being 860 feet below the sea level. "
