Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 11 (February 1, 1935)

“There is a Green Hill …”

“There is a Green Hill …”

One of the charms in New Zealand travel, at any rate to those travellers who take a more than perfunctory interest in the country they traverse, is the heightened value which the stories of the past give to beautiful scenes. This is more particularly true of the northern parts of the Dominion, and above all in the Auckland and Taranaki country. In a mental review of such places whose pictures remain a lifelong pleasant memory, thoughts linger on a spot which is not often mentioned as an example of lovely lands and storylands. This is Bombay Hill, on the Great South Road; it fills in the eastern skyline as you look eastward from the railway on the Pukekohe levels. It is the rounded crown of land on the northern terminal of the hills popularly called the Razorback Range. If you take the trouble to climb this way you are rewarded with an inspiring view over many leagues of very beautiful country, the pick of the South Auckland lands; it swims in colour from this commanding height, six or seven hundred feet above the plain.

The Bombay public school stands on the side of the hill, above the straggling township, and it is surely the most inspiring of settings and aspects for the fortunate children of the settlement, high-placed above that world, with the grandest of views and the purest of air, translucent light and radiant sunshine. Fortunate children, indeed, far removed from the dust and noise of the world below. Looking northward, they may see the hills of the West Coast, and northward to the volcanic cones of the Auckland isthmus, and Rangitoto Island. The outlook westward, with the easy tilt of the land, takes the eye over Pukekohe to the Manukau and the blue crests beyond.