November 18 Monday – At about 4:30 a.m. the Mahinapua was grounded for a half hour on a sandbar in French Pass. From FE:

Next morning early she went through the French Pass — a narrow gateway of rock, between bold headlands — so narrow, in fact, that it seemed no wider than a street. The current tore through there like a mill-race, and the boat darted through like a telegram. The passage was made in half a minute; then we were in a wide place where noble vast eddies swept grandly round and round in shoal water, and I wondered what they would do with the little boat. They did as they pleased with her. They picked her up and flung her around like nothing and landed her gently on the solid, smooth bottom of sand — so gently, indeed, that we barely felt her touch it, barely felt her quiver when she came to a standstill. The water was as clear as glass, the sand on the bottom was vividly distinct, and the fishes seemed to be swimming about in nothing. Fishing lines were brought out, but before we could bait the hooks the boat was off and away again [ch. XXXII 303-4].

The boat docked at Nelson, and the Clemenses took rooms for the day only at Masonic Hotel. They spent

…most of the day there, visiting acquaintances and driving with them about the garden — the whole region is a garden, excepting the scene of the “Maungatapu Murders,” of thirty years ago….That dark episode is the one large event in the history of Nelson. The fame of it traveled far [ch XXXIII 305].

Note: Shillingsburg lists the acquaintances as Edward Brown, cab driver, who drove them into the countryside in the afternoon; she also cites Gribben, p.429 for Sam acquiring a copy of David Mitchell Luckie’s The Maungatapu Mountain Murders, but only one other book is given by Gribben [“Down Under” 25].

The Clemens party re-boarded the Mahinapua early in the afternoon, avoiding a crowd for the 8 p.m. sailing. Shillingsburg calls the crowd “well-wishers.” The Nelson Evening Mail on Nov. 18 published a few brief comments by Mark Twain, probably an interview by A.A. Grace (not in Scharnhorst). The Clemenses spent the night aboard the Mahinapua en route to New Plymouth [“Down Under” 25].