A NEW PASS

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 August 1930, Page 5

A NEW PASS

• CANTERBURY TO WESTLAND. In the very early days, when the • greater part of the West Coast was unknown country, the old Provincial Government offered a reward for the discovery of new passes. One pass has remained undiscovered until last week-end, when a, party from the ■ Christchurch Mountaineering Club in their wanderings came across some ■ magnificent scenery and a totally new pass at a height of about 4000 feet. The party went to Arthur’s Pass on Saturday and spent four days in the region. They proceeded along the Mingha river to the Edwards stream which, by the way, is imperfectly shown on the maps, and found the new pass between Goat Pass • and Walker Pass. It is to the immediate north of Mount Franklin, an unclimbed peak about as high as Mt. Rollestou, and is on the other side of the Blimit Range from Arthur’s Pass. The probable reason why it has remained undiscovered for so long is that former explorers have not gone along the true route of the Edwards stream, a gorge leading them to believe that it did not go near the divide. A further reason might well be that as the gorge is five miles long it would be avoided by trampers. The party, which consisted of Messrs C. E. Fenwick, B. Wyn Irwin, R. E. Clark, and R. S. Odell, found three feet of snow past the gorge, and discovered that the pass goes to the Otehake river, a tributary of the Tercmakau.