THE WEST COAST ROAD.

Press, Volume XI, Issue 1379, 9 April 1867, Page 3

THE WEST COAST ROAD.

[From the " Wellington Independent."] Starting from Christchurch the road for the first score of miles or so ie very monotonous and uninteresting, although to one only accustomed to the Northern Island the great breadth of country and the fields of grain which fill up the view on either hand have an appearance quite novel and unexpected. Nor is it quite fair to call a road monotonous which is constantly diversified by homesteads, cornstacks, and other fitting accompaniments of rural scenery, among which churches and schools are not to be overlooked, though even such objects constantly recurring do become wearisome. When the bed of the Waimakariri is reached, the road runs for some miles along its banks, always seeming about to cross it, but not doing so, leaving it after a time, and entering the mountains by a Talley that appears to have been cut into them by a stream called the Kowai, that forms one of the tributaries of the river just mentioned. Having crossed and recrossed this stream, the road begins noticeably to ascend (it has been really, though slightly, ascending all the way), aud after a breathing walk of a couple of miles or so the summit of " Porter's Pass " is attained, and the first mountain chain crossed, at an elevation as it is said of 3500 feet. Still the scenery is tame, as the mountains are not imposing by their mass nor picturesque in their outline, while their surface, being sparsely covered by a thin native grass, gives them a bald and uninviting aspect. Farther on two lovely lakes are reached, whose deep "ultra-marine" blue color and glittering "eurface give them them the appearance of a vast amethyst set in a framework of pale yellow-green. Small wooded glens, too, are occasionally seen —one of the loveliest of which, but perhaps the most sequestered, has now gained a painful notoriety as the scene of a cruel murder, for which, as will be remembered, a travelling party of Chinese were lately apprehended near Oamaru. At the bottom of the hills the first day's journey ends, and the wearied travellers take their ease as they best may in the lonely inn at Cass riv.er, which is also the post-ofiice for the district. The second day's journey commonly begins before daybreak, by which the passengers avoid the sight of some rather precipitous descents, besides the " side-cutting " down which they have to go. Arrived at length where the Wnirnakariri has to be crossed, the landscape becomes of the most varied character. To the right the valley extends, still widening towards the Canterbury plains ; while to the left a snow-capped mountain rears its head, the brilliant blue of its glaciers gleaming and glittering under the morning sun. From thence the road turns at a right angle up a narrow valley formed by the Bealey river, which flows into the AVaimakariri just by the ford. The hills rise abruptly from each side of this valley, clothed with forests to their base, with cataracts

leaping down at every few yards, all presenting ever new forma of beauty, sometimes pouring small and clear as if from the pipe of a conduit, and at other times descending like a stream of foam, looking as gossamer-like as it' composed of finest gauze Soon, however, another ascent begins, and after a steep but short rise the summit of " Arthur's pass" is gained, named like the other pass, from its discoverer. Immediately after this is passed a stream begins to descend toward the west, showing that at length the " water-shed " is crossed ; but before the road descends a lateral valley opens towards the south, closed at a short distance by a lofty mountain, on whose summit lies a vast glacier— a veritable mer de glace —so full within sight that all its contour can be traced, and the characteristic rolling-up of the lower edge distinctly noted, while as if to leave nothing wanting to complete the magic of the scene, smaller glaciers and snow-drifts lay in shady hollows below, and from the face of the cliff small streams of bright green water leaped for hundreds of feet down, which from their sheen and hue look like huge skeins of brightest silk, waving to and fro in the sunlight as they hang suspended from the mountain side. Proceeding onwards, the stream receiving affluents from every glen, becomes larger as it goes, until at length a short, strong, bridge, is reached, and there each traveller stays for a few minutes as if spell bound to note the scene. On one side, the stream, swollen to a fierce and rushing river, Ights and raves amid stones and boulders that elsewhere would be regarded as respectable sized rocks, and pours its waters still onward in sheets of seething foam. On the other side, the largest cataract of all pours down its waters from a dizzy height, falling in yeasty whiteness into the foaming river. Such a combination of the grand and beautiful is rarely witnessed. After this the road finds its way across rivers, and through the everchanging variety of a JSTew Zealand forest. Cascades, too, are not wanting, but by the time this part is reached, the traveller has become so critical in cataracts that they fail to excite their due meed of admiration. At length, where a " wooden milestone" (speaking Hibernically) informs the traveller that he is four and a-half miles from Hokitika, the road debouches on the sandy beach, which has to be got through or over before the town is reached, where the marvels of the road end in the still more marvellous town that has sprung into existence, almost as in a moment, at the touch of that potent magician—gold. The road itself demands at least a passing notice. It is well formed for the whole distance, and metalled for the most part, though as to this it must in fairness be said that it passes through such accumulations of fractured rocks and boulders that metal enough might be obtained to cover the whole province if such an operation were desirable. Indeed, nothing is more remarkable than the streams of debris which show where, in some unknown geological period, torrents have rushed down the mountain sides, tearing everything before them, and leaving shattered fragments of many tons in weight to mark their course. Passing over mountains as it does, the road is sometimes steep and almost precipitous, yet it will remain as a proof of the indomitable energy of the Anglo-Saxon race that such a road could have been laid out and constructed within two years, through a country presenting such formidable difficulties. Certainly Canterbury, with its tunnel and its Hokitika road, bears the palm as respects public works among all the provinces of this colony. Of the inns on the road, all that can be said is, that it is a wonder to find such there at all. Their accommodation is somewhat rough, but their charges are not much higher than the best hotels in Christchurch—which is a comfort. At any rate they are a great improvement on what the venturous traveller must have put up with not two short years ago. The only thing to be regretted is, that this road is in such a prosaic place as New Zealand. If it were in the Alps or Appenines, travellers without number would be found to appreciate and describe the beauties of the scenes which it passes through.