CHARMING NELSON

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 132, 5 June 1915, Page 10

CHARMING NELSON

THE OLD MAUNGATAPU TRACK A {VIEW FROM DUN MOUNTAIN. (By a Casual Tripper.) The Blenheim-Nelson coach road nin3 via Havelock; and between tho latter place and Nelson crosses two high saddles. From Havelock, going Nelsonward, the road runs up the valley oj the Pelorus Kiver, and then up that of its tributary, the Rai, which introduces the traveller to the Rai Saddle. After a- long pull uphill he descends even more steeply into the valley of the Whangamoa, and after some easy travelling upstream meets with the Whangamoa Saddle, more formidable than, the Rai. Downward again be dips into the valley of the Wakapuaka, but turns off towards Nelson before reaching Cable Bay. Soon the sea is again reached, and a good limestone road facilitates speeding up. To the right are the Nelson boulder tank and its enclosed mudflats — some of which, reclaimed from the seay are giving good dairying results To the left are grassed limestone hills; and at the end of the vista Nelson, sheltered in its half-circling bay, gently beckons Nelson, is a beautiful, restful haven, welcome to tired limbs after fifty odd miles of up and down travel. Before leaving Havelock it should be said that excellent hotel accommodation may be obtained there, and that, as has been indicated, the traveller from Wellington via Picton may proceed either via Blenheim or The Grove If he makes satisfactory arrangements, ox has bis own locomotion, the time between Picton, The Grove, and Havelock need not exceed four hours, and it is possible to leave Wellington at midday and be in Havelock that night. By small steamer the voyage from Wellington to Havelock may be made direct. The Pdorns Valley, for some miles beyond Havelock, ia fairly wide and has fine arable flats. .Presently it contracts, and the river in places runs through rock-bound gorges, one of which has been bridged in order to carry the road up the Rai, in which similar rocky places are to be found. Before sheep-runs replaced the forest the Rai had great scenic beauty, all of which has not departed. •If the bush and the tui are seldom met with, there are plenty of imported birds to enliven the landscape, notably chaffinches. Also, in spite of the destruction of the native flora, fantails are particularly plentiful. It was a beautiful sight to see nine or ten of them piroutting over the clear waters of the stream, casting their twinkling shadows in the mirror below, and tumbling over themselves in their pur* suit of flies. As the tront in the stream were' also rising strenuously, the flies must have had a bad time of it, both from below and aloft. To see the country in proper perspective, it is well, after reaching Nelson, to walk to the top of the Dun, Mountain. Here, at tan. elevation of nearly 4000 ft, the traveller can look back on his tracks, ' for a clear view is given right down the Pelorus Valley and into the waters of the Sound outside Havelock In its small beginnings the Pelorus River runs under the lee of the Dun Mountain ; its general course may be followed, and the ,eye may note approximately the jun,ctaon-points of the Rai and Wakamarina tributaries. Near the foot- of the Dun the Maitai Stream takes, its rise and runs away towards Nelsons-traversing the-town — amid treeshaded promenades — before it gains the 6ea in Tasman Bay Between the Dun Mountain and the twin peaks of Mo-unga-tapu is a saddle separating the Maitai from the Pelorus; and over this saddle, in the old gold days, ran the track con* [ necting the Wakamarina diggings with ! Nelson and the West Coast. In those times this Maitai-Pelorus track via Maungatapu was the regular route of the gold-diggers, and became notorious on account of the murders committed by Burgess, Kelly, Levy, and Sullivan in 1866. In June of that yeai two storekeepers, an hotelkeeper, and a miner left the Wakamarina diggings en route to Nelson, and on the' lonely Maungatapu track were held up by the bushrangers, relieved of their gold, and murdered. Looking down from the Dun Mountain upon the bold wooded peaks and the dark defiles of the Maitai and Pelorus, it is easy to recall those rough old days and to picture the grim tragedy that ended on the gallows at Nelson nearly fifty years ago. JJut, apart from this echo of the dim past, the outlook from the Dun Mountain, in tho usual radiant weather of Nelson, presents no gloomy feature. A superb panorama is offered, embracing the Pelorus on one side, on the other Tasman Bay right out to Separation Point (beyond which is Golden Bay) ; westward are Mount Arthur and a long range of jagged hills; to the rear other great mountains, including Mount Richmond and Mount Fishtail. Thus in one picture is presented a large tract of Nelson and of Marlborough, a wonderful landscape and seascape. Nor is this all. Right away on the seaward horizon, growing up apparently^ out of the bank of cloud that loves to linger on horizons, is a blue pyramid, regular in shape and rising to a great height, like a lofty island set in the ocean. It is Mount Egmont, the guardian of the pastures of far-away Taranaki — a day's train from Wellington, yet visible clearly from this spot in the South Island across many leagues of intervening sea. After such a feat of distant vision, it seems nothing to look across the bay at the fruitful flats of Motueka and Riwaka, with the Moutere hills (now classed as the best orchard land) separating them from the great Waimea Plains. Still nearer are Rabbit Island and the low-lying stretches by the mouth of the Waimea River. Anyone who loves rich and varied panorama, presenting Nature in all her modes, should by no means fail to climb Nelson's Dun Mountain. It should be added, by way of caution, that the .walk from Nelson to the top of the mountain is no inconsiderable ' feat, but it has been made practicable for any energetic person by the engineering skill of an old-time company that built a tramway right up to what ib called "the mineral belt." The rails J are gone, but the formation for the most [ part remains, and provides a wellgraded road. One of the most remarkable features is the way in which the limits of the mineralised ground are sharply defined by the lines of the native bush, which will not grow thereon. Scrub and grass in some parts find a living, but as the ascent sharpens even these become scant, and piles of brown weird-looking rocks, with dabs of pyrites and various other minerals, constitute the cone and core of the upstanding mass. It needs no geologist or mineralogist, to perceive the highly-mineralised character of t]ie Dun Mountain, yet each and all the attempts to mine copper or other metals here have been commercial failures. Of Nelson and its climate many beautiful—and just— things have been written, and it is now too late in the day to attempt to gild the lily. Only one thing may be remarked. Where will you get a town where the cult of the indigenous is so faitbfiilly followed as it it> in* some of the private grounds a 1 BbSft dieUncs 3^i"jljU*e,.£j&hcd£d!

Where will yon get residences completely ramparted with such luxuriant native growth, with feathery lance- woods flanking tlie gate-ways ? Where else will you find within a few minutes walk of the heart of a town of eight thousand inhabitants, gardens where the tui warbles by day and the shy weka (Maori hen) sounds ite shrill note at night? Among New Zealand communities, Nelson has an in- i dividualty all its own, and no one but the stony-hearted can repel its subtle charm. With the advent to Nelson and 1 the ascent of the Dun Mountain, these rambling notes may be brought to a close. They were not intended to be anything more than fleeting impressions, and will have served their purpose if they interest any North Island trippers in the beautiful country across the Straits. Though part of the South Island, it is really closer to Wellington are many portions of the Welfingr ton province, because of the uniting influence of sea travel — rapid, commodious, and comparatively cheap. And there is no doubt that Mariborough and Nelson ought, by Wellingtonians, to be better known.