In Search of Mount Cook.

Evening Star, Issue 6914, 29 May 1885, Page 3

In Search of Mount Cook.

A writer in the Melbourne ' Argus,' who is describing his holiday in New Zealand, gives the following amusing account of his ineffectual attempt* to discover Mount Cook and of his subsequent disenchantment with regard to Oaimuu : from Dunedin it is easy to reach cither the north or the south of the island by sea or by rail. Consequently it is very conveniently situated for a tourist's he:id<|uarteas. I made it mine, and it was thence that 1 started on my various trips. The first of these was my expedition hi search of Mount Cook. Tliis seems to imply that the mountain -was lost, but that is not my meaning. I only wanted to see it. I asked a Dunedin friend how this was to be managed. " Nothing simpler," he replied. " Take the train for Christeluueli, and when you are just beyond Tiniaru look to the left, and there you are.'' So 1 took the train, and sped northward by the express, at a rate of rather more than fifteen miles an hour. Past Bluuskiu, whore I almost wished the train would go slower, as we rushed round the point on a narrow ledge, with the sea boiling beneath. Past farm and station, plain and hill; past Oamaru ; past well-tilled fertile voloarii; rises that recall Barrabool; past Timaru. And now, I thought, the time has come. I koked to the left, and there, far away in the distant heaven, half hidden by the gathering clouds, I saw a snowcapped nuigc. "At last," with reverent eyes. I gazed at the far-famed mountain. Emotion found its vent is song :—■

Mount Cook is tbo monarch of mountains, They clowned it long ago ; tint whom they got to put the crown on, I really do not kßO\v.

I was so delighted with this poetic effort, it had such a Byronie—albeit Sirithic—ring about it, that I repeated it aloud, pointing to the mountain as I did so. " That ain't Mount Cook," said a rough voice behind me. It was the guard, who had come on to the platform uupereeived. " You can't sec him from here." " But 1 was told you could. I have come here on purpose." " Well on a very clear day, if you know exactly where to look out. you might see him for about five minuses ; but you couldn't to-day." My poetry had been wasted on a nameless range. But I wasn't to be beaten so. At the first stopping-place I determined to get some information. "Guard, could you take a little refreshment?" "I could, sir, bidy my inspector is on board ; but I could drink your health another time. Thank you." " Where should 1 go to see this blessed mountain ?" " Fahiie Creek is the railwaystation nearest to it. You had better go there."

.I went. As we were approaching the station 1 confided to a bucolic fellow-passenger that I was going to see Mount Cook from Fail-lie Creek, fie smiled, and said " You can't, for the same reason that the .Spanish fleet could not be seen—it's not in sight." Noticing my look of disappointment, he added : " But you go to Silver Creek ; that's your place." I went to Silver Creek. I walked there against a head hurricane. I inquired for Mount Cook. No Mount Cook. But 1 was told to get a horse and ride through Burke's I'ass to Lake Tekapo, and then 1 would be. all right. I got a horse. A sudden thought struck ine as I was about to start. '' Can 1 see Mount Cook from Lake Tekapo?" " Oh, dear, no. But if you get another horse and a guide there, and go to Blenheim, and if the weather should happen to l>e fin' "' This was too much. I turned hack without, a word. I never saw Mount Cook. Mount Harris is its proper name. " I don't believe there ain't such a mountain. "'