November 16 Saturday – In Christchurch, N.Z., Sam lunched with the Canterbury Club. Joseph Kinsey and daughter May went with the Clemens party to Lyttelton, 12 miles on the train. The Clemenses carried 35 gifts including Maori artifacts. Kinsey also gave Sam a stuffed platypus (ornithorhyncus). Kinsey took photographs in Christchurch and would send them to the Clemenses in Wellington. At midnight they sailed in the Union Company’s Flora for Wellington.

November 15 Friday – In Christchurch, N.Z. this may have been the day Sam visited the Canterbury Museum:

In the museum we saw many curious and interesting things; among others a fine native house of the olden time…and the totem-posts were there, ancestor above ancestor, with tongues protruded and hands clasped comfortably over bellies containing other people’s ancestors — grotesque and ugly devils, every one, but lovingly carved, and ably; and the stuffed natives were present…looking as natural as life….

November 14 Thursday – In Christchurch’s Theatre Royal, Sam gave his No. 2 program of “At Home,” which contained his “Morals Sermon” with the watermelon story, the Jumping Frog, the Nevada duel, and Huck, Tom and Jim discussing the Crusades. His second talk was well received. After the intermission he told the Mrs. McWilliams lightning story “with a good deal of graphic force” [Shillingsburg, At Home 148]. Reviews published Nov. 15: Lyttelton Times; The Press; Star [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 24].

November 13 Wednesday – In Christchurch, N.Z, at the Theatre Royal, the audience sang “For he’s a jolly good fellow” while waiting for Sam to come on stage. He arrived to cheers, stomps, and loud applause for several minutes. After the enthusiasm subsided he gave his No. 1 program of “At Home.”

November 12 Tuesday – Four miles outside of Oamaru, Sam lunched with John F. Miles, probably on his sheep ranch. Afterward Sam and Carlyle G. Smythe traveled the 150 miles to Christchurch, N.Z., “the city of the plains.” He was met by President of the Savage Club and Savages; and by Joseph J. Kinsey and family, and Mr. A.J. Peacock.

November 11 Monday – Sam backtracked from Timaru to Oamaru by train, arriving in the early afternoon, and was driven around Claremont by a local, W. Evans. He got a look at the steamer Flora, in which he would sail from Christchurch to Wellington a week later.

November 10 Sunday – In Timaru Sam was driven around the town and down to the beach, where he viewed the Elginshire, shipwrecked on May 9, 1892. He wrote, “big flowering mills; wonderful opaline clouds…a pretty town & cosy pretty homes all around it. Plenty of greenery & flowers…broom & gorse.” About the botanical gardens he wrote, “Why haven’t we have these?” [Shillingsburg, At Home; NB 34 TS 37]

November 9 Saturday – In the morning in Dunedin the Clemens party visited an art gallery with William Matthew Hodgkins, attorney who had opened the annual exhibition of the Society of Artists the evening before. In his notebook he mentions one particular painting: “Dickens’ son-in-law’s lovely picture of a girl blowing at a flower” [NB 34 TS 33]. Sam wrote in FE of the exhibition:

November 8 Friday – In Dunedin, N.Z., it was a rainy, windy day and Sam noted, “This is the beginning of N Z summer, I was told” [NB 34 TS 33]. Livy and Clara went to a tea at a “charming place” possibly meeting two young girls named Whyte and Tait. This may have been a luncheon party given by Mrs. Royse at Leith House. (In his Nov. 9 notebook entry, Sam calls them “Marion White & Miss Tait — Scotch descent” [NB 34 TS 33].

November 7 Thursday – Sam wrote in FE and in his notebook of Dunedin and events there:

The town justifies Michael Davitt’s praises. The people are Scotch. They stopped here on their way from home to heaven — thinking they had arrived. The population is stated at 40,000, by Malcom Ross, journalist; stated by an M.P. at 60,000. A journalist cannot lie.

To the residence of Dr. Hockin. He has a fine collection of books relating to New Zealand; and his house is a museum of Maori art and antiquities [FE ch. XXX 287].