NATIONAL PARK

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 184, 2 May 1929, Page 13

NATIONAL PARK

PROGRESS OF THE CHATEAU BUILDERS OF WHAKAPAPA MARVEL OF ORGANISED SPEED (By E.A.A.) Every day at 6.15 in the morning a bell clangs at Whakapapa huts. The toilers at the Chateau take up their tools and work is in full blast in a matter of a few moments. Innumerable carpenters thud and bang as if their life depended upon it, cement mixers growl round. Another day’s work has started. These toilers as they work can watch the mists melt from the rugged snow-clad face of Ruapehu live thousand feet above them. Surely no toilers did a day’s work under more ideal scenic surroundings. Where the beeches that clothe the flanks of Ruapehu give place to tussock, four thousand feet above the sea level, there stands the nearly completed chateau, in a little bay of beech bush. Behind rears Ruapehu. In front to the north the ground slopes to the lowlands of New Zealand in a carpet of brown tussocky plains that dip away towards the valleys and the hills of the purple distances. To the east a welter of clouds spin clothes for Ngauruhoe, Nature’s big gun. Marvel of Organised Speed.

The actual building of this dainty chateau has been a marvel of organised speed. Twelve weeks ago there was no sign of it. Now not only has the skeleton been completed, but partially clothed with floors, roofs, and dividing walls. I felt that a few more thuds, a nail ere, ; screw there and the chateau would ready. Actually it will be ready by August, some three months before contract time. The construction of the chateau has had its own problems to solve different from the construction of buildings near towns. It weighs 10,000 tons this chateau. It is situated four thousand feet above sea level, and practically every single ton of material bas had to be carted from the station nearly 1000 feet below and 11 miles away. Over a quarter of a million feet of New Zealand timbers have been used m its construction, including boxing for concrete work. . . “This,” said the clerk of the works, “is the garage.” We were on S l ' ol ™-* level, the so-called basement of the chateau. The real ground floor is at present one floor up. When finished a drive will sweep up an embankment to the reception porch and out again by another ramp. . , We walked in and out of the divisions of the basement. Besides the garage to hold some twenty cars where men were busy on the preparatory work before laying dotin concrete, we saw the kinema hall. Close to that is the gymnasium where guests may get a little exercise. I wondered if they would want it, for in the country round Nature has laid out marvellous traps for encouraging exercise. There are walks galore and there is always Ruapehu beckoning. The cafeteria is on this floor. It will be used to serve those dwelling in the huts. These huts at present are self-contained with their own diningroom, and some kind person who ten-derly-places a hot water bottle in your bed every evening. When the chateau is finished the huts will remain and I suppose the hot-water bottles, but the dining rooms will be closed. The cafeteria will take their place. The Chateau. On the real ground floor some twelve feet up, for the drive is not yet formed, most of the space is taken up by the lounge and chateau dining rooms. A special parquetry floor will be put down for dancing. But there was no one dancing now. Indeed the floor would have been difficult to dance upon; it was somewhat open work, consisting of a grid of joists and beams with nothing in the gaps. I could see the men working down below in the kinema, the garage, and the gymnasium X-rayed through the open spaces where the floor will soon be laid. Up to the first floor the outside of the chateau will consist of hollow tiles. Upwards from there there will be brick, a gap and then hollow tiles again so that there will be two walls between visitors and the elements outside. On the real first floor relegated to bedrooms, bathrooms and visitors I stepped out on to a large balcony some fifty feet square. “In winter,” said my guide, this will be flooded and used for figure skating.” All That Money Could Buy. It seemed that all that money could buy was being lavished on this chateau on the slopes of Ruapehu. Even the guttering was of pure copper. A hydro-elec-tric scheme of its own costing some £6OOO will provide light, and power tor the lifts. Batteries of tennis courts wilt be laid, bowling greens, and even spacious > laws for croquet will not be forgotten. Every two 'bedrooms will share a private j bathroom, whilst other rooms will have bathrooms to themselves. Hot and cold water will bo provided in every room. 1 walked in and out of tha<e rooms, bare walls now with the cement scarcely dry.

Every window seemed to have a better view than the last. I chose my room. It was the most expensive and opened out on to the figure skating balcony. Peeps ot Tougariro and Ngauruhoe could be caught from the windows, whilst to the north all New Zealand lay at my feet. The second fluor is practically an exact copy of the first floor except that the rooms will be divided off by wooden partitions instead of concrete. There was a bustle about the place. You could almost see it grow. As I stood watching Ruapehu a long piece of guttering slipped into place above me and men were busy at a dividing wall. All the wiring for electric light is already completed. Snaky wires disappeared into pipes in the concrete and poked up here and there at points and pendants. Hie plumbing is completed as far as the laying of the pipes which also hide themselves in the skeleton of the building and are invisible even to-day. Once again we were standing on the real ground floor, the so-called basement. “What,” I said, “will this room be used for’” It was a large room presumably under the drive and the reception rooms. "That,” he said, “is the nineteenth hole I