Florence and Constance were given the job of killing the caterpillars that munched their way through the grape leaves. They lost count of how many hundreds of them they squashed in a day, and much to their dismay, there seemed to be a never-ending supply of them. Florence looked forward to the end of the growing season, when she could go and swim at the nearby beach at Port Philip.
Over time Florence began to adjust to her new life in Australia. She even found things about it she enjoyed. Her mother seemed healthier in the hot climate and got out a lot more. Mrs. Young made friends with an old woman who lived five miles away at Red Hills. The woman’s name was Mrs. Evans, and she soon became a grandmother figure to Florence and her siblings.
There were no libraries in the area, but Mrs. Evans loaned the children all kinds of books. Florence’s favorite books were the ones written by Sir Walter Scott. Along with the books, Mrs. Evans provided white rabbits and canaries for pets, and a pony that she allowed Florence to keep for six months. Florence discovered that she loved to ride, and she became an expert at catching and saddling the pony.
Just as it had been in New Zealand, there was no school nearby for the children to attend, so a neighbor came once or twice a week to help the children with their schoolwork.
When they had been in Australia for two years, Emily came to visit from Invercargill. She now had two children, Kathleen and baby Connie. Sadly, the visit turned into a disaster when Emily came down with typhoid fever soon after she arrived. Her husband, Dr. John Deck, made a hasty trip across the Tasman Sea to Australia to nurse Emily, and everyone was relieved when she began to recover.
About this time Florence overheard several conversations that made her realize the vineyard was not making enough money to support the family. She was secretly delighted when she heard her father explaining that he was going to sell the property and return to New Zealand.
Sure enough, after an absence of three years, the Young family did pack up and move back to New Zealand. Florence’s happiness at being back on South Island had an element of surprise as she found herself living in a large canvas tent on a remote sheep station at Otapiri, in the Hokonui Hills, about twenty miles from Erme Dale, the old family farm.
While Florence’s father made plans to build a house on the new farm for his family, some good news arrived. Florence’s Uncle Charles, her father’s oldest brother, who was a wealthy merchant in England, offered to buy Erme Dale back from its new owners and arrange things so that her brothers Arthur and Horace could farm the place. Still more good news arrived. Word came that Florence’s mother’s brother, Dr. William Eccles, and his family had emigrated from England to Dunedin, about seventy miles away. However, Florence’s joy in her newly reunited family was short-lived.
When her parents learned that Uncle William was taking his own children back to England to be educated, they decided that it was time that fourteen-year-old Florence had some formal schooling as well. What a wonderful opportunity, they told her, to travel back to England with her cousins and settle into a school there.
Time passed quickly, and on April 5, 1871, Florence found herself on her fifth ocean voyage. This time she was traveling on the Spirit of Dunedin, a ship that carried New Zealand’s chief export, wool, to the markets in England and Europe. Florence soon found out that nothing about a wool ship was glamorous. The food was greasy and cold, and each passenger was allotted just two pints of cold, rust-colored water a day to bathe and wash his or her clothes in. In addition, there were no ports of call along the way, and the eighty-four-day voyage seemed like an eternity.
At last Florence spotted land: Start Point on the Isle of Wight. What a welcome sight it was after seeing nothing but blue sea and sky for nearly three months.
During the voyage Florence had tried not to think about what might happen when she arrived at school. She knew she loved to read, but she had little idea about geometry, Latin, or French. Her stomach turned into knots when she contemplated going to class with other fourteen-year-olds. Would she look like a fool? Would they guess that she had never been to school? Florence decided that no matter how hard she had to work, she would catch up to the other students.
Florence and her cousins were met at the dock in England by two of her mother’s sisters, Annie and Julia. The women were both so short that the children soon dubbed them their “Little Aunts.’’
The Little Aunts gave everyone a warm welcome and took them all back to their nicely furnished house at Sydenham, where seven servants were ready and waiting to tend to their needs. Compared to the tent on the new family farm in New Zealand, the house and servants in England almost seemed like a dream to Florence, who was to spend the two months until school started in this wonderful place with her aunts.
From the Little Aunts’ house at Sydenham, it was not far to her Grandfather Young’s estate, situated on the River Thames between Maidenhead and Cookham. Florence went to visit her father’s family there. She had vague memories of the place from ten years before. While it looked like a three-story castle from the outside, the basement windows were shaped like a ship’s portholes, and the flat roof resembled a quarterdeck. Admiral Sir George Young, Florence’s great-grandfather, had built the place, designing it to remind him of his life at sea. While Florence’s great-grandfather had spent his life at sea, her grandparents had a long association with India. In fact, Florence’s father had been born in India and served as the youngest judge in the colony before marrying her mother. Echoes of India filled Grandmother and Grandfather Young’s house, from the intricately carved trunk in the bedroom to the bright orange silk drapes in the parlor. And Florence loved it when her grandfather and uncles told her stories about their adventures in India. It stirred her imagination and reminded her of her father.
After nine carefree weeks staying with the Little Aunts, it was time to start boarding school in Blackheath, near Greenwich in London. The first weeks at school were the most difficult for Florence. She did her best to fit in with the other girls, though she was acutely aware that she was a colonial girl with a different accent and a sense of independence born of living and working on the land in New Zealand and Australia.
Most of the teachers gave lectures, during which the students took notes and then reconstructed them into written reports about what they had learned. Florence had never listened so hard or written so much in her life, and she soon realized that the three hours of silence after dinner each night were not enough both to complete all her homework and to study to catch up with her classmates. She got into the habit of getting up in the morning when it was still dark, dressing, and making her bed. Then she would sit quietly until the first rays of sunlight burst through the eastern window of the dormitory room. That was her signal to begin studying.
It was a grueling routine, but Florence stuck to it. And as the year rolled by, she not only caught up to the other girls academically but also passed them. By the end of the year, Florence was top of her class, and she was top of it the following year as well.
Everyone agreed that Florence had done exceptionally well at school, but the opportunities for an educated girl in England were limited. She could become a schoolteacher, or perhaps a governess, but Florence did not care for either profession. In October 1873, with her schooling behind her, Florence Young boarded a ship to return to New Zealand.
The long and arduous journey back home took 106 days. For eleven days the ship was becalmed in the English Channel, and during the rest of the voyage, they encountered only light winds. The ship reached Melbourne, Australia, on January 20, 1874, where Florence transferred to a steamer for the continuation of the journey to Bluff, New Zealand. In Bluff, Florence’s brother Arthur met her, and the two of them went by train to Invercargill and then on to Winton, where they caught a stagecoach to Flint’s Crossing. Horace was waiting for them at Flint’s Crossing with three horses, and the three siblings rode the last thirteen miles over the hills to Otapiri on horseback.
Florence loved every moment of her journey home across the wild southern landscape of South Island. She had not ridden a horse for nearly three years, and she loved the feeling of freedom as the animal galloped along. She also enjoyed being flanked by her brothers again.
When Florence had left for England, there had been only a tent on the new farm at Otapiri. Now, as she galloped onto the property, she saw that a small wooden house had replaced the tent. Like every other house she had passed on the train and stagecoach trip, the new house was rectangular, with a steeply sloped roof and a veranda running the full length of the front. A chimney rose at one side. In the field in front of the house, a mob of sheep was clustered among the cabbage trees.
Florence’s mother and father were waiting on the veranda as she and her brothers rode up. After many hugs and greetings all around, Florence was ushered inside to inspect the family’s new home.
Inside the front door were two small living rooms, and then a bedroom. The kitchen was a lean-to off the back of the house. A steep staircase led up to two attic bedrooms, whose sloping walls had been papered with pictures from the Illustrated London News. As Mrs. Young proudly showed off her handiwork, Florence was overwhelmed with what her parents had given up to be pioneers in New Zealand. Back in England her relatives lived a pampered life with butlers, parlor maids, and coachmen, but out here in the colonies, her parents had to do everything for themselves.
That evening, as Florence sat with her family on the veranda, she understood the pull this place could have on people. From her perch she gazed out across the Waimea Plains to the barren hills beyond. In the twilight, the shadows cast by the hills produced fantastic shapes. And behind the barren foothills towered the majestic snow-covered Southern Alps. Florence took in the sight and breathed deeply. It felt so good to be home again.
Chapter 4
Changes
Over the next day or so, Florence caught up on all of the family news. Constance was away at boarding school in Dunedin, and Emily had given birth to two more children while Florence was away in England. Florence was delighted to learn that Emily and the four children would be visiting in February. However, when they arrived, the news was not good.
Florence’s brother-in-law John had been kicked in the knee by a horse the previous winter, and the joint had not healed. In fact, it had become so painful that Dr. John had given up his busy medical practice because he needed bed rest. The Young family rallied around to help, and it was decided that Florence should join Arthur and Horace at Erme Dale and that the six members of the Deck clan should join them there for the fall and winter. The Erme Dale house was larger than the one her parents lived in at Otapiri and was better suited to a large influx of visitors. Florence loved Erme Dale and did not mind going there to help out. She enjoyed getting to know her new niece Emily, or Emmie, as everyone called her, and her nephew Harry.
Fall and winter passed quickly, but as spring rolled around, John was no better. A family meeting was held, and it was decided that John should return to England for an operation. Emily would go with him and take the two oldest children, Kathleen and Constance, with her. The two youngest children would stay with Florence.
In September Florence accompanied her sister to Dunedin, where the Deck family now lived, to help with the depressing task of disposing of or packing up the family’s furniture and belongings.
On her first Saturday in Dunedin, Florence went to the local Plymouth Brethren prayer meeting with her sister. From the moment she stepped into the hall, Florence felt like she had when Mr. Honare had visited the family at Erme Dale. Her stomach turned to knots, and as she listened to a Brethren elder preach, she became convinced that tonight was the night she must become a Christian. When the meeting was over, Emily introduced her to the speaker, Albert Brunton.
