VISIT TO CRASHED PLANE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 98, 21 January 1944, Page 4

VISIT TO CRASHED PLANE

Wellington Trafnpers

Mt. Richmond, the highest point on the rugged Wairau-Nelson divide, scene of the disastrous Lockheed crash in May, 1942, was recently climbed by three Wellington trampers on a four-day trip. This rough and almost trackless- range is devoid of huts and consists of some of the most impenetrable mountain country in the north of the South Island. A start was made from Top Valley, on the Marlborough side. The party found easy going on the lower slopes, but to reach the high bluffs and shingle slides of the upper levels they were forced to erawl with their 601 b. packs through wiry sub-alpine scrub. A night was spent at 5000 ft., and the top of Richmond, 5777 ft., was visited next morning. The trampers were rewarded with an extensive view stretching from Golden Bay to the Marlborough .Sounds and from Blenheim to the snowy Kaikourns. On the descent they passed close to the burnt-out remains of the crashed airliner "Kereru,” of which "very little now remains.

According to the trampers, keas and goats were plentiful, but on the whole trip neither deer nor pigs were sighted. Wekus (bush hens), they said, made a considerable nuisance of themselves. The hot, sunny wea.thr which prevailed throughout the trip, ■together with the absence of water at this time of year, made their waterbottles indispensable.