LURE OF THE WILD

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 102, 4 May 1929, Page 17

LURE OF THE WILD

WEST COAST WONDERS

EO3IAXCE OF THE PAST

PLENTIFUL BIRD LIFE

(By E. E. Muir.)

In this, the seventh and concluding article of the series describing something of the scenic wonders to be found in South Westland, it is proposed to deal with some of the remaining attractions which are of general interest and without which the rest would be incomplete. The whole district, indeed, is rich in romance untold not only in the story of creation here, but also in that of man, who, away back in the early days of settlement of the colony, penetrated these secret fastnesses in the search for gold, and found it in prodigious quantities, even strewn along the sand on the seashore. BUT A FRACTION OF WHAT IT ONCE WAS. One wonders at the vast forces of Nature that have been at work there throughout the ages, at seeing, out towards the coast and along the foothills of tho mountains, huge inorainic deposits, now completely adorned in forest which bespeak of prehistoric glacial action .011 a stupendous scale, of things we know not of, and coifcerning which we can only conjecture. "Though the Franz Josef may be still considered a valley glacier of large size, especially if its latitude and the narrowness and relatively low altitude of the Alps be considered, its present dimensions are but a. faction of its former very large proportions," says Dr. J. M. Bell, Director of Geological Survey, in his report dated 1910. "In the Pleistocene period it deployed on the narrow coastal plain of Westland, and united with other ice streams to the north and south, forming a vast piedmont icesheet, above which the isolated peaks and ridges rose as lonely nunatacks. As the glacier gradually retreated it left the plain, and occupied only the broad valley, which, in its advance, it had enlarged and partly excavated. Up this valley it has slowly receded to its present po s i tion, leaving in its train

numerous terminal and lateral moraines in the valley through which now flows the Waiho River.'' Half - way out from Waiho towards the sea is a strange morainie hill, clad entirely in bush, exactly the shape of a prostrate Egyptian mummy, and is coming to be known as such. MAD WATERS. It is weird to stand on the main suspension bridge at Waiho and to watch the river in flood, a boiling, mad, grey torrent, surging, swirling, rushing and roaring, grvr' ';....ks of ice lYu: i Uie Fran/. Josef Glacier and big boulders being carried down its stony bed, smashing into one another fis they go . . . . The noise resemble* that of the ocean in a storm as the breakers dash against the shore. . . Stranger still is it to observe the peculiar white fog, coating only the surface of its fm> bidding water?, alim^ the. whole lengfli of I lie river iis it, makes its way In tlio sea. At lirsl one i-oncludcs that the phenomenon is due to spray, but closer observation leads to the belief that if. is probably accounted for liy the contact of tin: icy waters with th" warmer atmosphere, in his fascinating book, " Pioneer Work in the Alps of Xew Zealand," now unfortunately out of print, Mr. Arthur 1\ Harper states that the moaning of the 'Maori name Waiho is "smoky waters." The wafers of tlm Wailio arc. " smoky " right enough, and so are those of the C'oolc Itiver, wider and wilder still, 20 miles further south, which must represent the tempestuous furios themselves when tlio river is in full flood. The thouslit occur* to one: How <li,l

tli'-- early prospectors ford theso u;ifordable rivers, and when they succeeded in doing so, how did they get back to replenish their supplies.' . . . There is no answer except that we know that the thing was done—we know not the price. But remarkable things in this region ■ it" the unusual never seem to cease. Right down in the riverbed of the Waiho, within a mile and a-half of the l''ranz Josef Glacier, is a hot mineral spring in which one car. actually have a warm bath within reach of blocks of ice from the glacier flowing down the river; while within a mile of the terminal face of the Fox Glacier is an-

other hot mineral spring in which one can experience similar delights! This, however, appears to be quite a common thing in the case of these extraordinary West Coast rivers. "On nearly every river on the West Coast," says Mr. Harper in his book written thirty years ago, "there are mineral hot springs. Their heat is not due in any way to volcanic agency. ... It is generally the ,case that a mile or so before the river emerges from' the hills, a mineral spring is to be found in the bed of the stream, in which case the water will

l>e hoi." To the newcomer this makes him wonder all the more. THE AMAZING CALLERY GOUGE. Perhaps the spectacle of the wildest grandeur to be seen anywhere in this district is the amazing Callery Gor^e I through which the Callery River, rising from the glaciers on iiount Elie do Beaumont, discharges into the Waiho 1 .River close to the hot spring. Standins lon the swing bridge about 50 feet j above the bed of the roaring waters, and looking up into the gorge, one is confronted with a truly wondrous scene. On both sides of this narrow defile, less than 100 feet wide, the

mountain walls, clothed in the richest vegetation, rise sheer above one for many hundreds of feet, and about 200 feet ahead close in together with the boiling river shooting out through a circular tunnel underneath. It really has to be seen to be believed. To see it in normal times is a revelation, but to be there when the river is in full flood must be to witness a sight before which the imagination must stand appalled. The Callery Gorge is, in fact, a classic rxample of fascinating frightfulness merged into the supremely beau-

tH'ul. :,i.<l is one of the best features of tho wholly simple walk along the wellf'irni.j'l and graded track round the basin of tho "Wail'o Gorge. BIRD LIFE ABUNDANT.' One naturally expects that in such a district native bird life is abundant, nnd so ir is compared with other New Zealand forested areas, but it is great- | ly to be regretted that it is not so much in evidence as it once was. Nevertheless, it is plentiful enough so as ■ to bo notable in present-day New Zea- ' land. The glorious songs of the tiiis and bellbirds are to be heard everywhere in the neighbourhood of Waiho and Weheka; the big, handsome native pigeons are sufficiently numerous as to be frequently seen flying from tree to tree and even tumbling in the sunshine. There are plenty of waxeyes and fantails, occasional kakas, robins, and tiny wrens, and sometimes the shining cuckoo of which we saw one. The charming weka, so much in evidence on the Milford Track, is, however, conspicuous by his absence —one only has been seen lately in tho vicinity of the terminal face of the Franz Josef Glacier. The calls of the night birds, with the exception of those of the morepork, appear to be no longer heard. The kiwi hereabouts now is unknown, and the same applies to the beautiful kakapo, the huge f green New Zealand parrot, a ground bird, which, with his dwarfed wings, has almost lost the power of flight and so has fallen a victim to the pests introduced by man. LAKE MAPOURIKA AND OKAEITO. No one visiting Waiho should miss | making the trips to Lake Mapnurika and Okarito on the sea coast, which can be accomplished comfortably in one day. Out on the launch on the western side of Lake Mapourika, a large and very beautiful sheet of water set among morainie hills and enclosed wholly by luxuriant virgin forest, one gets a magnificent view of thirty miles "of the Great "Divide, the Franz Josef Glacier, and the forest, the whole superb panorama being reflected on a calm, still morning to. the minutest detail in the clear waters of the lake. From the Okarito trig station the views are more extensive, and, but for the perfection of the reflections, even finer. Here on a fine day, such as we .enjoyed, the visitor, even after all he i has seen before, is aToused to enthusiasm by the exceptional beauty of the three extraordinary panoramas that unfold themselves. To the east is a scene of transcendent magnificence—fifty miles and more of the Great Divide in all its glistening, towering splendours lisine abrunt-

ly out of a maze of dark green, bushclad gorges and mountains, centred j by the sparkling ' Franz Josef Glacier descending out of sight below the low forested morainic hills, the whole seen across a sea of unbroken forest ten miles wide and all in the richest colourings. With the sole exception of Milf ord Sou nd, there is no other part of New Zealand in which, at a single glance, one' can see so much of the sublime and beautiful in tho most . pronounced form. One is carried away by the super.lativencss of it all, and particularly so hy the enormous extent of sub-tropi-cal forest as yet wholly unspoilt—a priceless heritage which it would be a sacrileges to destroy.

Yet it seems that this, too, or at any rate, most of it, is threatened with destruction, that it is to go the way of most of the glorjous bush that once adornad JS'eiv Zcalniul. and so little of which now remains. The sawmilleis have got their eyes upon it, and so has, apparently, what goes by the name of "prosperity." .Speaking to a. Press representative on his return to Wellington after his tour of the West Const in February lust, tho Hon. W. A. Veitrh, Minister of Labour and Mines, is credited with having said: "What I liked most about the West Coast is that there arc several directions in which almost unlimited progress can bo made. That, fact, coupled with the optimism of the people, suggests that there is going to be a great revival of prosperity there ■within a reasonable time. I was shown timber areas within reach

of Okarito harbour, where, according to Government figures, there are two thousand million foot of valuable timber." Does the Minister mean that the sawmills arc to be put into this forest, "within reach of Okarito harbour," shown in the aceompaying picture? If so, they will certainly spoil what is imleed one of the last remaining stretches of New Zealand's sylvan glories.

To tho north of Okarito trig station tho sea coast in a half-moon, and the who)e of Vt'estland stretch as far us the eye can see, with Okarito township and the immense, but singularly beautiful, Okarito lagoon, in all the shades of bine and green, in the foreground. . . . To the south a vast expanse presents itself of low morainic, bush-clad hills merging into the horizon, a whollybroken coastline of bold bluffs and headlands, alluring beaches, and the bluest of blue inlets, encircled by luxuriant green forest down to the water's edge. . . . The trig station at Okarito is, in truth, an exceptional point of vantage from which all the scenic glories of Westland can be seen in enchanting perspective.

THE ROMANCE OF OKARITO. But the township of Okarito itself! It is tiny now, comprising one hotel, a small schoolhouse, a church, a tumbledown courthouse, and a score or so of dwellings, most of them dilapidated and vacant. Cows grazo in its one and only street. But it has a "voice," an "atmosphere" that • one actually "feels," that bespeaks of its romantic past—of the "roaring" days when it had a population of 5000 digg°rs, three banks, thirty-one hotels and dance halls, a Resident Magistrate, and when upwards of six million sterling in gold was gathered up off the beaches and in the , surrounding neighbourhood. . . That old tumble-down courthouse there, its front blown in, revealing the Judge and jury boxes, facing- the once goldstrewn beach—what tales it might tell! Grim, picturesque in its ruins . . . silent, it remains dumb; but it is wholly eloquent withal. . . . Gone are those who played the leading roles in the real-life dramas there, and it soon, too, must follow them. ... It has been condemned for removal this year. One might fittingly conclude this series of articles there, but something more is due. One must pay a tribute to those old pioneers and explorers who found the way and "blazed the trail," making it possible for present-day amateurs to ergoy these supreme delights— to Sir Julius yon Haast, possibly the first white man to visit'the Franz Josef Glacier, who made- the first technical examination of it. and named it; to Messrs. Charles E. Douglas and Arthur P. Harper, who first thoroughly explored it and the whole neighbourhood; to Messrs. J. C. Fife, Malcolm Ross, G. Graham, and F. G. Gibbs, who made the first ascent to Graham's Saddle; to Messrs. A. P. Harper, E. Fitngcrald, and the Swiss Guide Zurbriggeri, who made the first actual crossing of the Divide via Graham's Saddle; to Dr. Teichelmann, the Rev. 11. E. Newton, and W. Bntson, who made the first actual complete ascent of the Franz Josef Valley; to Dr. Teichelmann, Professor Linden, and Guide Alex. Granam, who discovered the route that is now used in all climbs of the glacier, via the Aimer bivouac, up to Graham's Saddle. To them all modern climbers owe a debt of gratitude which they can only repay by appreciating and acknowledging it.