WESTLAND BEAUTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 156, 3 July 1936, Page 13

WESTLAND BEAUTY.

ASCENT OF MOUNT TASMAN. ENGLISHMAN'S LECTURE. The enjoyment of a vivid tour of littleknown places of scenic charm in South Westland was made possible for a large audience at the Gaiety Cinema, Takapuna, yesterday afternoon by the showing of an exceptionally fine series of hand-coloured lantern slides by Mr. Alan C. Browne, F.R.G.S., A.R.C.A., an Englishman who is gathering material for a number of lectures on the Dominion which he will give in other parts of the world.

Mr. Browne has worked up the material for this addi'ees since about December of last year, when he was one of a small party which climbed Mount Tasman by way of the Fox Glacier. Most of the thousands of people who came each year as far as the foot of the Franz Joseph Glacier, he pointed out, did not know that they were only at the beginning of someof the most beautiful eights in the world. Only 20 miles further on, where the Eox Glacier had its foot, there were breathtaking views of the highest peaks in New Zealand.

Along this 20-mile journey Mr. Browne took his audience yesterday with the help of illustrations of rare beauty. The road wound through rugged native bush and tlie lecturer stopped for a while at Gillespie's Beach, where gold-seeking activities are still evident. He came then to a spot where could be obtained the most beautiful views possible of the crowning peaka of the Southern Alps, Cook and Tasman, the very top of New Zealand. The spot was Lake Mathieson and the slides Mr. Browne made of its beauty must be the rarest in his collection. The motionless waters of the lake made a perfect mirror for the peaks towering far above.

The climb of the mountain began and with it came beautiful pictures of sunlight striking 011 stately tree ferns and hanging mosses in the midst of the mountain bush. Suddenly the ice was reached— a great sea of broken, glistening pinnacles. A scene at a high altitude brought expressions of wonder from the audience. It was made early on a moonlit evening, looking out over snow and ice in the direction of the sea. Dawn on the ice, with its blazing sunshine and cold shadow, was wonderfully depicted.

The summit was reached, a strenuous, risky task, and the dcscent begun, and the audience in their imaginary travels looked back for a final view of the great ice cap of Tasman, "queen of the Alps."