Fragile Eden, Robin Hanbury-Tenison - This is the story of Robin and Louella Hanbury-Tenison’s exploration of New Zealand on horseback in 1988. They rode alone together through what they describe as ’some of the most dramatic and exciting country we have ever seen.’ For two or thee days at a time, Robin and Louella would map read their way by compass across some of the largest farms in the world, at one moment crossing snowy passes of over 6,000 feet, at the next baking in the dry summer heat of the valley floors.  At night they would shelter from the rain and wind in primitive shepherds’ huts, brewing up soup and tea to keep themselves warm.

But while they found scenery so spectacular it more than justified the des­cription of New Zealand as “the most beautiful country in the world," they found, too, a country in crisis.  New Zealanders are striving in the face of new, often restrictive, world markets to lessen their sense of economic isolation and vulner­ability and to cut their country’s large overseas debt.  And serious environmental problems have, like those of the economy, hit the country’s major industry – agriculture – hardest.  As President of Survival International, Robin Hanbury-Tenison was struck, too, by the fear and hostility shown to the Maoris by many of their countrymen, though encouraged by his constructive meetings with their leaders.

ISBN 1590481542

It was into this equine maelstrom that Isabella Bird had wandered by mistake.

Bound from New Zealand to San Francisco, Isabella had come ashore at Hawaii on an impulse. What she discovered was not what she had been expecting. Soon after cattle were introduced onto the island, they went wild and could not be managed by islanders on foot. The King therefore enlisted the aid of imported Mexican vaqueros, who brought with them not only their horses and saddles, but also their sense of equestrian panache.

When Isabella Bird landed she discovered a still untrammelled tropical paradise. However, the once pedestrian Hawaiians had taken to the saddle with a vengeance. The islanders rode – everywhere – and the clergyman’s daughter soon joined them. Having never ridden astride because of the English cultural taboo, Isabella was reluctant to cast aside her native equestrian traditions. When she did, the greatest female equestrian traveller of the Victorian age came to life.

This book recounts the first of Isabella Bird’s remarkable mounted adventures. Though she went on to explore the Rocky Mountains, Japan, Persia, and Tibet on horseback, Isabella first stepped into the saddle and onto the pages of Long Rider history in Hawaii. This classic account of thrilling equestrian adventure tells the story of one woman’s discovery of both her own soul and the wide world beyond.