A SPLENDID WINTER TRIP

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2897, 9 October 1916, Page 5

A SPLENDID WINTER TRIP

TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK

(By H. V. Von Haast.)

AVhen travellers on tho Main Trunk line in winter seo a party embarking with icc-axes and bundles of skis for the Tongariro National Park, thoy regard thera as amiable lunatics. Tho railway officials who check the luggago through scratch their heads over tho skis, and finally give us the benefit of the doubt, . and pass them free as "sportsmen's gear," although obviously somewhat cynical as to whether skiing is a sport, and thoso mad enough to seek tho snow in winter are sportsmen. _ Their cynicism would no doubt havo increased had they later seen two of us traversing tho ravine-scored plateau between Ngauruhoo and Ruapehu, or ascending tho steep, rocky slopes of tho latter mountain, cach with- three pairs of skis slung across his back, seeking for snow whereon to. ski, but that is another story. Littlo do those scoffers know of the fascination and exhilaration of tho National Park in winter, from tho timo when at tho Waiouru railway station you step nut into a world wliito with frost, and behold the cones of Egmont, Ruapelui, and Ngauruhoe, virginal white, glistening in tho first rays of tho sun, to tho moment when you reluctantly turn your back on tho spacious plains and catch your last glimpso of stately Ruapehu gleaming in tho moonlight above the sombro forest. In summer you may perhaps justly rc-,-gard tho region as ouo of desert and desolation, of sconery weird and wonderful, of craters and scoria and heat and dust, but in winter the soft mantle of snow that tlio mountains don covers up the a-sporitics of their surroundings, tempers tho atmosphere, and makes tho district a delightful playground, in which tho beautiful is not overpowered •by the bizarro and tho fantastic. To begin with, at tho Waihohonu hut, 'which a benevolent Government places at your disposal rpnt free, and which, by tho way, is not in tho National Park, you are up 3700 feet abovo scalovel, and tho air iii conscquenco is clear and crisp liko iced champagne. From tho plateau on which tho hut stands, tho long flanks of the moun-

tains sweep down to tho roomy, spacious plains, tawny orange as a. lion's mano,' dappled at sunrise and sunset with lilac and purplo, as the clouds float above them. On tho other side of these plains tho dark Kaimanawas, busli-covered and snow-crested, as you return in the evening from snow climbs or skT-ing, lose their crude blues and greens of tho daytime_, and robe themselves successively in hues of lilac, plum colour, purple, violet, deep bluo and indigo, while-far in tho distance tlio range of tho Rualiines closes the view, a long, pale, ethereal bluo barrier bordered with white. Evory-

tvhoro about yoti is a seuso of room and space, light and air, of solitude not depressing, but elevating. And at your feet is porhaos the greatest surprise of all. a wonderful glowing desert garden. Turning off from the nine-teen-niilo peg on the Tokaanu Road, crossing the rushing. Ohincpango Stream, and driving through an avenue of southern beeches, you emergo on the .grass steppes, aud at once your eye is attracted by what looks like a scries of gardens of Japanese minia-turo-stunted shrubs in all tho glory of autumn foliage. Gold and orango and green, claret, maroon, russet and browns of all shades mingle in rich harmony. It does not require much imagination to picturo what the Japanese sailors could make the docks of their ships if they were allowed an afternoon on those steppes. Rounded veronicas, varying in colour' from greoii to gold, and tawny tussocks of snow-grass stand out from tho manycoloured islets below them; the mountain totara spreads its brown carpet over tho pumice sands; low heaths, especially a- relation of that which wo call tho turpentine bush at Mount Cook, vary in shape, form and colour, some oi'cct with sharp needle-liko foliage, others spreading like miniature maples, some a deep maroon, others claret, othors ,again a brown pink, a golden-brown or a' fawn colour. Hero and there a lycopodium strikes a noto of the brightest orange, while low

manuka bushes introduce a minor tone of mauve-purple. You marvel at the warmth and harmony of these colours, you marvel at the way in which in a desert of pumice or scoria oases of gold and russet occur. As in tho evening you turn your back upon the palo snows of the mountains, glancing baclc from time to time to see tho delicato pink blush that they assume as tho sun kisses them good-night, and direct your attention from the celostial to tho terrestrial, the desert gardens burn and glow in the setting sun almost as if they would burst into flame. When re-

turning from Ngauruhoo you mount tho last rocky. ridge and pause to admire Ruapehu as it stretches out before you, tho long grassy slopes at its base, tawny on the surface, seem suffused by a claret under-glow. At least so it appeared to me, but- at the moment my companions' minds seemed more intent 011 the pink hues of the large liam that they knew was boiling in a kerosene tin in the "AVaihohonu Hut tkitn on the colour-schemo to which - I sought to dircct their attention, for the appetite after a long d;jy' on the snow, oven though j'ou have been consuming from time to time date sandwiches, bread and jam, sardines, oranges, wliolo meal biscuits, tinned poaches, pears, or pineapple, almonds and raisins, and similar unconsidered trifles, grows sharp, as the air when the sun goes down. 'You ought to go in summer," say some of our fellow-travellers. In summer, forsooth, when sandflies bite, and tho air is hot- and drowsy, and you tramp over a wilderness of scoria, and Tongariro's craters aro black and dusty and forbidding. They know nothing of the exhilaration with which you set out at half-past fiyo on a fine winter's morning when tlio Kainianawas aro silhouetted black against tho lemon glimmer of tho dawn and the frost-bound ground rings under your feet,' as, pulling your gloves well over your hands, and your sweater well up round your neck, you swing along among tho rocks up the track that leads to the first ridge that you liavo to cross en routo to Ketetahi, nor the zest with which J you mako your first halt for a second breakfast in tho Oturero crater, out of tho snow floor of which riso black rocks, jagged and fantastic, as if ironbound reefs from some wicked sea coast had suddenly been dropped inland. Ruapehu is always a vestal virgin, chaste and unsullied, but to-day Ngauruhoo is a chimney-sweep. Tho subterranean firemen are stoking furiously witli slack, and from tho funnel dark clouds drop black ash on the north side of the mountain, making it a magpie, black on one 6ido, white on t'other.

An hour's climb lip the snow-slopes, and we find ourselves on t-lio roof of Tongariro, the Red Crater on ono side, tho blue lakes, now frozen and snowcovered, on tho othor. Tho crimson cliffs seem to take a deeper tint by virtuo of their whito background, which also serves to show up the delicate brown, grej', chrome, and olivo-grcon (shades of tlio organ pipes on the opposite side of tho crater. One wall of the crater is perfect for glissading, as a third of tho way down tho slopo has a depression like a switclibaok, over which you bump, and then you shoot down tho stoop, white incline on to tho rounded lake at the bottom. No glissading in summer! Descending to the main crator of Tongariro, we find ourselves in a perfect winter sportsground. Hero is a natural amphithc-

f atro of snow, ringed in by snowy peaks and slopes, from which -dark crags emerge. Horo you can ski and glissade, and doubtless toboggan witli a, littlo preparation, to your heart's content. [At hand aro frozen lakes, which could be swept of their snow and maoo available for skating, and not much more than an hour or so below are tho blowholes and hot springs of Ketetahi, uaiting to bo harnessed and tamed for tho invalid and the sportsman, for whoso bruises and stiffness these aro verily tho waters ol' Lethe. And from the saddlo, the eye takes in tho sunlit Waimarino l'lain, interlaced by tho streams' that flow to the dark bush beyond, tho heart-shaped jewel of Lako Roto-aira, and beyond, the long bhio expanse of Lake Taupo, with the Tokaanu headlands jutting into it, and a, bight liko an inverted Bay of Naples, a purplo Vesuvius at tho ond' of tho crescent. Hero are all these beauties and wonders, this perfect winter playgronnd placed at our disposal by tho generosity of the, Natives and tho foresight of the Government, not a,, penny to pay for admission and free lodging thrown in to boot, and how many avail themselves of it— when it is at its best? Perhaps a couple of dozen enthusiasts of the Ruapeliu Ski Club, ivho have discovered its beauties and tho invigorating effect of the mountain air. Ajid -from our cities of tho north only a night's train journey and you aro on tho threshold, already opening your lungs and taking in tho nectar in deep draughts. But I foresee that before many years aro over, this will be one of- tho most popular winter resorts in Now Zealand. Instead ,of a neglected tin hut below tho Ketetahi Springs, wo shall havo a woll-appointed l hostelry larger than tho Hermitage at Mt. Cook, a regular sanatorium at Kotetalii, a small funicular railway to the crater of longariro to tako sportsmen, skis, skates, and toboggans up to tho amphitheatre, and later perhaps wb shall IF/} hostelry by aeroplanes or Zeps. '

•ii o i 3"° 1 - UI S people winter sports will become tho great event of tho year, and for tho merchant who is run down or for the harassed professional man a week at the National Park mil be tho most popular prescription.. And then wo old fogies will say, "Yes, it is all .very comfortable and vory oasy. but it can't compare with thoso old clays, when wo carried our skis across country on our own backs, camped' in a tin hut with ail earthen floor, hewed' our own wood in the bush, and "drew our own water in kerosene tins from the creek, cooked' in'kerosene tins over a great open wood firo, slept on couches of snow grass, wore our old' clothes, and enjoyed perfect freedom." Arid wo shall bo right.

But do not wait for tho hotels and tho funicular, do not imagine that only athletes can make tho ascent of Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe, that if you cannot climb, thero is nothing for you to do, or that the winter is so rigorous that you must eithor he running round! or sitting over tho firo all day. Under tlio conduct of a leader used to mountain climbing, with ice-axes and a ropo, goggles, and a plentiful supply of zinc ointment, and' above all, making an early start before tho sun gots up, anyone used to walking can ascend both tho mountains, and enjoy tho wonderful icicles of Ruapelm, like phalanxes of rock crystal,, and the crest of To Heu Heu, resembling cumulus clouds congealed as they rested on tho mountain top or soapsuds which some giant had been blowing into bubbles arrested and converted into alabaster clusters. For the rock climber, there are crags on the slopes of Ruapehu, antf some lino pillars, walls, and columns of rock round Ngauruhoe and Tongarifo, while if you do not mind a couple of hours' walk, you will find snow available for ski-ing at about 5000 feet on eithor mountain, even in the mildest of winters.

' But for tho'sowho' wish to talco their pleasures less violently, there aro strolls and walks and sconerv to enjoy. There is tli© bush behind tho hut, a glade of becch trees with dappled whito and grey trunks, and foliage fringed with grey-green lichen, a glade carpeted with vivid green moss and fern ; there are creeks that ripplo over dark rooks like Scotch burns, and: cut their way through busK into, deep mountain gorges, there aro tho strange ravines, often two or threo miles long, river-beds without water and floors like a newly-sanded road, sometimes shut in between high, narrow walls, then opening out into an open-air theatre, black or umber banks studded with dark rocks and brilliant scrub representing the auditorium. •' And all around you everywhere is always tho desert garden with its varied hues. You can take your billy and boil it by the side of one of the streams, and you will fiud an abundance of dry sticks to make a fire (but build it out in tho open, away from the' vegetation, I pray you), and you can oat your lunch ensconced in a clump of shrubs, and gaze your fill on the mountains on either sido of you, and then read your novel or drowse off, lulled to sleep by the' ripplo of the running water. But best of all picnicking places, and perhaps most romantic of all spots is tho source of the Ohincpango. Skirt the bush for about twenty minutes from tho hut, and you come to a pool of clear crystal water, bush-girt, at tho foot of a hill, a pool with a bed aud banks of emerald green moss, so sheltered, so secluded, that one could well imagine it tho bath of the Naiads, the Dryads, and tho Oreads of the district. Take a few steps down among the tussocks and tho placid pool has become a tortuous river,. rushing in rapids over 'moss-covered rocks, hurrying and swirling under umber-clay banks, past golden green veronicas, out on to the open plain. By this pool at four o'clock on a winter's day we were sitting, without wraps, basking in the sunshine.

Such aro some of the pleasures of the National Park in winter. The Waihohonu hut is easily . reached. Messrs. Crowffier and Macauley will drive you from the railway station to tho door, and will call i for you when you are readv to depart. Thojr aro very obliging, and their terms aro very reasonable. Mco j'our food and your bedding, and your cooking -utensils, and Dr. Cockayne's report on the botanical survey of the park, issued by the Lands Department. Tbero is plenty of wood, so take an axe, but do, I beseech you, spare tho live trees! and got your firewood from the dead and fallen timber, of which thero is plenty close at hand. Respect both tho growing trees and the undergrowth of. young beech that is sprouting up. Remember this is not only your park, but that of your descendants, and prcscrvo it for them. Pack your supplies in keroseno tins, and bring handles with' woodeu grips for them, half a dozen tins would not bo too -many, for a party uses plenty of water every day, and each mail ca_n bring up two tins of water at a time from tho creek. Remember, too, that you are the guests of the Government at tho lmt, and leavo it and its surroundings swept and garnished for tho next comer. Bearing these hints in' mind, when you are thinking of a holiday in winter, try tho National Park, and see whether or no the picture I liavo painted for you is too highly coloured.