Description
Features the diary of Ethel Richardson who, with her two sisters, made a voyage to the Sub-Antarctic Islands of New Zealand in 1890 when they were aged 18 to 24.
Cynthia Cass talks about her book and her connection to the three intrepid women….
“They travelled on the government steamship “Hinemoa” which serviced lighthouses around the coast and was establishing castaway depots for survivors of shipwrecks on the southern islands. Ethel Richardson was my great aunt. Her eldest sister on the right in the photo is my grandmother who married the ships carpenter from the Hinemoa. They settled on the farm near Pahiatua where I live today.
The diary and an accompanying sketch book have some delightfully amusing drawings of their daring escapades as they journeyed from Wellington round the south of the South Island then to the Snares Auckland, Campbell, Antipodes and Bounty Islands. They displayed an ability to make fun from the simplest of things and teased the sailors on board unmercifully”.
“I visited the Islands in 2001 and 2007 and have produced a series of paintings which were shown at various exhibitions when the book was launched. The paintings attempt to show what the islands are like and the book is a fascinating insight into the life of young women of the day. Clad in long dresses and high buttoned boots, they had little to protect them from the freezing conditions but they appeared to be willing to row boats and ramble over rocky terrain with gusto. The description of their landing on the Antipodes illustrates how intrepid they were. A sketch of them going after parakeets on the Antipodes shows that these islands are one of the few places on earth where wild beauty has existed unchanged for over a hundred years.”
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