LAKE COLERIDGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8742, 16 December 1913, Page 7

LAKE COLERIDGE.

HOW TO GET THERE.

(By W. G. Gallagher/^lenarift'e, Double Hill.)

It has occurred to me that'a short explanation of the route to the Lake Coleridge hydro-electric works might prove of interest to some of your many readers, as I have found a good deal of misconception in the minds of some people-1 have spoken to on the subject, s Considering the magnitude-of the works, and the beneficial effect they are expected to have on the future development of Canterbury, a visit at the present time, (before the works are completed) could not fail to be of interest to Ashburton residents.

Those who have motor-cars could easily make the trip during one of the long summer days, the distance being about 55 miles from Ashburton, via Methven and Rakaia Gorge Bridge, the bridge and surroundings ...themselves being well worth ,a.^yj^ife..,?- . ..^ ?;.>.;•>..> The road is all metall^ei'cept about two miLes, which is a, good grass road through a part of Snowden just after leaving the Gorge bridge. The Gorge bridge .cutting is about the steepest in; the trip., and the visitor should go straight off the bridge on to the zigzag cutting and leave the Christchurch road on the right; after that the road< leads to Lake Coleridge, and the Acheron River is now bridged.

At the works themselves the visitor wiil find much to interest him. At the Lake intake one can go down the shaft and there see the much-discussed popper drill at work in the solid rock, driven by compressed air. Here the visitor will get some little idea of that dread disease pythisis, which so shortens miners' lives by the minute particles of dnst from drills settling on their lungs. At the centre of the works is another shaft nearly 200 feet deep where concrete is being mixed for lindng the tunnel, an interesting little tramway carrying shingle up the hill to be cleaned, coming down a shoot. Whakamatau—the Maori interpretation of which is "to enlighten "—post office and township is also here. This however is only a temporally place, as the permanent township will be at the Rakaia river bank when work is completed. The houses and tents in i which families, including women and children, live, are built away in seem- I ingly inaccessible, places in the gullies. „ . The power-house in the riverbed is a j ferro concrete building and is, I under-J stand, to be rooted in ferro concrete also. Here one may see a double row ] of pipes weighing three tons each, through which a man can walk, being j rivetted together with inch-thick rivets, the power being compressed air. The concrete tiers on which the pipes are laid are more interesting now to inspect than they will be when the intervening gullies'are filled up..j The road between the intake and, power-house is well formed, . though | somewhat narrow, : and is: being constantly used by motor lorries, cars, etc.' The pure clear air of the higher j altitude is most refreshing and the surrounding' hills are very beautiful in the various lights and shades they cast over the lake. Further back are the higher mountains, the tops of which, are always snow-clad. On the sunny faces of these mountains graze some of j the few remaining flocks of the rapidly diminishing, merino which in the past has done so much in building .up: New : Zealand.flocks.