ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 18 July 1929, Page 7

ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY

NELSON TO WESTPORT. FIRST TRIP OVERLAND SINCE ’QUA KE. After an adventurous journey tii Overland car service from Nelson t the West Coast was resumed on Tuc: day for the first time since the ibi shake, cars- using the new route vi Alaruia, and .passenger* walking a dii tanee of three miles around the sli| in the Ma taki taki, Va I ley from the Xe son car to the s-oast car. says ill ‘ ‘ Dominion.'' Leaving Nelson at eight in the mori ing the cars reached .Murchison at mb day. and proceeded up the AlatakitalValley to Six .Mile Creek. This wn banked up with llooded waters, and th passengers crossed in a row boa brought from Lake Rotorua. Afti lunch at a Public Works camp, a hal: mile further on the beginning of th big slips from the terrace were seet beneath which the road was baric deep. For a mile or so a path had -bee cut to the- top of the terrace, an tliencc followed a track through th bush for about a mile until strikin the road at a point on top 'of the tei race. The road was then followed fc another mile or more, with numerou slips down. Finally a point >was read ed to which the road had been cleare from the coast side, and here passenger and pack horses with mails and luj gage awaited -the coast car. Throng a misunderstanding at West-port thi car was two hours behind time. • At 3.15-p.ill. the passengers were e route in the coast car, and a fine seeni drive followed through the bush-da Upper Mntakitaki right under the fan otis Old Man 'Mountain, on which set oral large -slips had occurred on thi side. Behind t-lie Old Man rose til snowy heights of Alt. Mant-011. Man. large slips were seen on the hills al the way u,p the valley, and at som still abandoned homesteads domesti animals and poultry stood forloml; about. The Mammoth Hotel, however was in operation again. The bridge across the'. M'afnkitaki, Glenroy. am Warbcek, at the head of the valle; were all in good order, and from t'h< latter the long climb -began up tin saddle into Manna watershed. As tin ascent was made slips on the road be came noticeably smaller, but tin amount of clearing done appeared in adequate if the route is to be kepi permanently open. . The summit wn: readied at' five, o’clock-, and then cann the long run down the Warwick tributary of the Mamin..’a 'halt- being mad< for. tea at Air Lester’s homestead in Mid-Alaruia at six o'clock. The only earthquake damage reported.- in this area was a few -chimneys down. It was particularly interesting to learn that the detonations and booming - noises which had been sudi a marked feature of the earthquakes at Murchison and in file Afatakitaki and :he neighbouring valleys,, had not been icard -at any time in the Alid and Upper Alaruia. After ten miles good going up the •alley the Alaruia River was forded in •lie dark, -the -passengers and baggage wing -taken across in a wagon with three-horse team, thi' wagon then reuriiiiig to help then-ay over. No great ieptii of water is in the liver, but the lot tom is rough. D is hoped before mg to have a temporary bridge, prob bly at a point three miles higher up, town as the Sluice Box. Leaving" the iver, thi' ascent over the Raliu Saddle as presenl l.v begun. Although the md at nn time is above Hie high line, was snow-covered for ten miles or; lore, the snow for a long distance beig the best part of a foot in depth nd is stated to have been on the round for a fortnight. With service ir traffic it is feared the road will ■ much knocked about when the snow laws, and if the route', is to be mainlined tin l feasibility of clearing the low with a grader should lie worth

e immediate attention of tile Main igiiways Board. A snowfall of this <o is said to be quite exceptional on e Raliu Saddle, but - its occurrence 'ints to the strong probability of the ejected road across the much higher ■wis Pass from Alaruia to Canterbury ing completely blocked by snow in e winter.

a The run down the Tnaugahua to Reefs ton. which was reached soon after nine - o'clock, unis without event. On arrival 1 it was learnt that an alarming shake e had occurred about an hour earlier, - bringing down bottles in the hotel bar. - This had not been noticed in the car. 1 but it was recalled that about the time it took place trees'by the roadside were seen waving as if a strong wind wore „ blowing, but no wind was felt and the 1 vegetation was motionless for the rest ' of the way. 1 Thick fog delayed the run from Reef- [ t" l ' to Westport. Earthquake damage on the road was again noticeable in ’ the Duller Gorge,'but only a few stones were brought .down by last: night’s slake .and the road is. well cleared around all. the slips. Westport, owing to the various delays on this trial run, was not reached until midnight, but the time for the arrival is exported henceforth to be about !> p.m. and will be reduced as the gap to be walked in the Matakitnki Valiev is reduced and facilities at -Mamin Ford improved. Fifty men are now working on the Matakiraki slips and the number is to be increased with a view to the completion of a new serf ion of road in the terrace above the sii.ps within two liiinit hs. I'iie new I'oute is only twenty-one miles longer from Nelson to Reef ton and points to tin- south, and lias, if anything, finer scenery, particularly at present with the snow-clad peaks towering above the. bush, line, and also has an, added attraction in passing close to the Maruisi hot springs, the valuable curative properties of which for rheumatism, etc., have long been esteemed by the miners on the coast.