Crossing the main divide

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 18

Crossing the main divide

The towering, snowcapped peaks of the Southern Alps dominate the Westland and Mount Cook National Parks. Tonight’s second programme in the TVNZ series "Journeys in National Parks” (7.30 on One), takes presenter Peter Hayden on a trek from the West Coast forests over the main divide and down to the foot of the mighty Tasman glacier. The journey is made in the path of the west wind which dominates this country’s weather.

Captain Cook was the first European to view the massive kahikatea forests of the region. Hayden and his companion, the ecologist Geoff Park, forge deep into one of the last remaining stands of native trees to stand beneath a 400-year-old giant.

The Westland National Park is solid forest from coast to mountains — one of the few such forests left in New Zealand.

The west to east journey follows the Copland Valley, and here Peter Hayden is joined by experienced trampers Jim and Ann Wilson.

Following in the spirit of an explorer from last century, Charlie Douglas, the three leave the established track to make their way through dense bush — briefly. Douglas and his dog bashed through this route in the 1880 s looking for a mule track over the mountains. He was unsuccessful.

Hayden and his companions relax in the hot pools at Welcome Flat, with a backdrop of snowclad peaks. The wet westerly drops huge

amounts of rain on the foothills, and as it is forced up over the Alps its moisture drops as snow. After three days the

group has reached Copland Pass, which leds to the east side of the main divide, where they have to decide whether or not they can press on through deep snow. Spring arrives, the west

wind warms up, and the park comes to life. Plants, animals and insect life

awake from their winter slumber.

A veteran mountaineer, the late Harry Ayres, the first ranger appointed in Mount Cook National Park, accompanies Peter Hayden on his maiden climbing expedition. The leader on the climb is Joce Lang, a Mount Cook guide, who was one of the first women admitted to the eUte group of international alpine guides. The three set out to climb Hochstetter Dome, 3000 m. The group inches its way along razorbacked ridges and around crevasses and Peter touches the alpine world for the first time, assisted by the guiding experience of two generations. His first mountain climbing expedition behind him, Peter sets out to explore New Zealand’s largest glacier. The Tasman is the frozen river formed by the snow deposited on the Alps by the westerly. Glaciologist Peter Chinn leads him to the edge of the “longest drop” in New Zealand — the toilet at the Tasman Saddle Hut. A pack or other piece of equipment dropped into the glacier here would take between five and seven hundred years to emerge at the bottom. With the buzz of ski planes taking tourists to touch down on the glacier, the two men descend to the valley floor, where the ice stops, and stumble over the moraine left behind by the glacier’s ’ recession. As they leave the park, the westerly wind brings yet another storm to the Alps.