The party stayed in an area called Emily Place which was on a hill in Auckland. It was a very metropolitan city with a maze of streets. Nutting said, "It makes one feel fairly dizzy, being more perplexing, if possible, than the old part of Boston." Many subtropical plants were found in its parks and gardens.
Durvillea (seaweed, near Wellington) |
The adventurers spent five weeks on the Fiji Islands then on July 4th they boarded the Makura for their trip to New Zealand. To sail from Suva, Fiji to Auckland, New Zealand took less than four days. However, the voyage aboard the ship was rather stormy on July 6th. Professor Nutting described the event: he was attempting to write while sitting in a chair and suddenly being thrown out of the chair and rolling wildly on the floor. He said the sea appeared to be enraged. By the evening those who survived the seasickness enjoyed themselves along with fellow passagers singing in the piano lounge. On the following day they neared the harbor. At the custom house, their passports were taken, but they were informed that they would be returned within seven days after registering with the police. The laws in New Zealand were much more strict. No Germans or Russians were allowed at that time and harshest restrictions were applied to Asia immigration. Only Anglo-Saxons were allowed to immigrate without difficulty.
The party was stationed mostly on the North Island. Each member acquired many speciments representative of their of expertise to use for illustrative or research purposes. New Zealand's climate was different from the Fiji Islands. Even though this island has a similar latitude as Iowa, the party experienced a winter season. Wylie's attitude about this encounter is described below in a section from his journal.
Wylie cites that the winter weather was always chilly, often cold and the south even more so. "Our party suffered greatly from the cold while indoors as the New Zealanders followed the English custom of leaving the house essentially as the outside temperature. I froze over one weekend in a small hotel. Although the forests abound little is used for fuel."
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