MOUNTAIN ECHOES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 24 December 1925, Page 10

MOUNTAIN ECHOES.

NEWS AND NOTES OF ECMONT.

(By “Snowline.”)

Summer is late coming to Egmont this year. Snow still lies deep and low on the mountain side, m wonderful contrast to the warm and sheltered corner which protects the Dawson J! alls Hostel, lying only a tew hundred deetbelow the glistening snow slopes. Visitors to Dawson Fails are finding much pleasure in being able to reach the snowline so easily, and enjoy a game ol snowballing or glissading without the difficulty of a strenuous climb. However, an occasional day of glorious sunshine and an occasional Durst of warm rain will soon melt and wash the snow from the lower

Presently Egmont’s sides will lie in their usual summer nakedness; but his white crown stays for ever.

Egmont is a monarch of mountains They crowned him long ago On a throne of rocks. In a robe of clouds, With a diadem of snow.

Always, and in all aspects, the mountain is an impressive, beautiful and iefresiling sight, especially appealing to the visitor from the plains. The visitor to Mt. Egmont must not under any circumstances forget to visit Stratford Plateau. And he must go there walking slowly, not because the two miles of track is steep and stony, but to absorb all the beauty around, above and about hint; and also under his feet —the flowers and the alpine plants. And when lie gets there he will lie a long time arriving, on account ot- all the loveliness which snares his eyes and stays his feet. He must sit down in the centre of the tiny plateau, which is floored with sweet dry grasses and ringed around with silence, and hedged about with solitude, and roofed with the blueness of the illimitable sky. Then he must thank God that gave him the eyes to see and the soul to. appreciate this wonderful haunting beauty. The usual rush of summer visitors to Dawson Falls has not yet set in. This is no doubt- due to the erratic weather which obtains in most parts of the Dominion just at present. However, accommodation at the hostel has been heavily booked! for the Christmas holidays and well into the New Year. For the past week the weather conditions have been most pleasant here—bright sunshine with just enough chill in the air, mornings and evenings, to make walking a pleasure. Blazing wood 'fires make ample amends for the cool breath of snow which creeps down irdin the mountain after sunset. The motor track from the gate to the hostel is in very good condition, , and the beauty of the bush is intensi'fied by th e . flowering senecio, which hangs its large, star-like clusters from the'over-hanging branches of the giant trees which skirt the track. A stroll down the track when the sun is shining and the birds singing is always a joy to eye and ear, but a stroll after sunset, “when the night is beginning to lower’’ more than amply repays one to whose taste the fireside comforts appeal only when inclement weather overcomes the call of the out-of-doors.

The light of a new moon ghosting the tree-tops, the mountain mists alternately veiling and revealing the silver gleam of the falls, and the dark, wooded ravine below, a few stars faintly gleaming, the night sky, the lights of thp Taranaki towns twinkling like jewelled necklets on the dark plain below, and a moreporlc sombrely calling to his mate out of the darkness —this and the incessant drone of the falls only accentuates the solemn stillness of the night, and lulls the- human spirit to a peace and serenity not often attained. The whole atmosphere of the mountain at night, with its dark-wooded slopes and lofty snow peak, is one of serenity, aloofness an dunchangeablehess, which impresses afresh the visitor who year after year returps to refresh his mind and body on these upland spaces. Amongst the visitors to Dawson Fal’s during the past keek have been Sir Francis Dillon Bell-and daughter, Dr. Moore (Napier), Dr. Hocken and family (Kaponga), Misses Blake and Carmichael (Hawera). and Mr Hugh Chambers (Hawke’s Bay). Mr Chambers, who is a member of the Alpine ■Club, London, stayed the best part of a week and accomplished a good deal of climbing and tramping. He reports the mountain in fine condition for climbing, the snow being hard and in unusual amount for this time of the year.