BETTER THAN SWITZERLAND.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 216, 5 June 1908, Page 11

BETTER THAN SWITZERLAND.

OUR ALPINE SCENERY. ■ Guide F..5.; Steffan, ,of Martinborough, a native, of -the Austrian Tyrol, who. recently, made ;a tour of Europe, has been located at Mount Cook (luring the past summer in tho employ : of the Tourist Department qualifying , for, the business of an Alpine guide, for which ;his training makes" him admirably suited. '. Mr, Steffan, to whom mountainclimbing comes as natural as his breath, and . who spent; much time in his youth .in tramp-, . iiig' : 'tli6; mountain ways of his-native Tyrol', and -Switzerland,' expresses himself quaintly on .tho grandeur of New Zealand's mountain scenery ~as revealed, to him during his stay at'Moiiht Cobk.' .: : . '' .'.'No view I have ever seen in my life," said ho,; " not even at Infcerlocken, the Zermat,,i.or the'Engaline- Valloy can cotco anywhere; ,near the. vieni from' tho Matto Bi'Un ;hut looking across- the Tasman Glacier. —Oh,;;what a sight! ;I took Mr. Maiers, a joUTnaljst-from Zurich (Switzerland), up thorp;' and ho said that ho could not find tho words . to,;-express, what lie felt about it— ■ he.thoughtthere 'was. nothing like it in the world, and that the Tasman Glacier.was'.tho greatest glacier in the world. " Mr. Maiers thought that Mt. Ely do Beaumont was the most perfect snow-capped mountain he had ever seen, and I think so, said Mr. Steffan. "People ' save up their money and go away to Europe, and ' come;back, saying how beautiful, how wonderful ;is : Switzerland, when t'noy livo only two\or.: three days from what is something much grander. They talk of tho ice-caves in the' Swiss; glaciers—bah! they are artificially made, ;but; see tho ice-caves on. tho Tasman, magnificent and.natural!' " Of course, tho scenery here is rougher— rip mountain- chalets, and even green forests and old churches on the mountain sides. Herb it, is all rugged and grand—oil, I can't tell! You people who stay at home don't know. It'is .fine!"