A BIG DAY IN THE NELSON MOUNTAINS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 16 June 1923, Page 7

A BIG DAY IN THE NELSON MOUNTAINS

(By Professor Arnold Wall in tho Christchurch Press.) 1 made my first acquaintance with the mountains of Nelson province in January, 1921, when 1 visited the Dun Mountain, near Nelson, and Alt. Arthur further west. 'I lie walk to the Dun Mountain from Nelson is famous; all good Nelsonians know it. I was met on arrival in Nelson on the 27th by Air F. G. Gibbs, and quite a large party of us were out that, day. The route lies along an old bush tramway for about eight miles. The bush itself is beautiful, and there are magnificent views over tile province. in every direction. Un our arrival at the Peridotitc or Mineral Belt, a billy was boiled, and a few faithful souls remained by it, and kept up the fire, in spite of heavy rain, until the rest of us returned from the Dun. From the summit we looked westwards to the high limestone peaks of Mt. Arthur, my next objective, also to Alt. Peel and Alt. Domett : further south, to. the pale mass of Alt. Owen, towards the head of the Bill lor river; and title south, across the Upper Pelorus river, to Alts. Richmond, Fishtail, and Baldv. on the range between the Pelorus and the Wtii ran rivers. The southward scene fascinated me most. We looked down upon the. vast trackless beech forest which drain's the whole of the Upper Pelorus A'alley with its solemn mantle. Tho forest, runs up to nearly 5000 feet, and above that altitude appear the isolated, bare summits of Richmond and Fishtail, mere islets in the ocean of trees. There and then T vowed that the odd mountain called Fishtail, or The. Fish’s Tail, should some day be mine. Delightful as this view is as a feast for the eve it is not a pure pleasure to the would-be explorer and botanist. From the Dun to Fishtail is not more than eight miles, and in a grass country like Canterbury it. would be an affair of a few hours, but virgin forest is a terrible, obstacle. The plants of the Mineral Belt- have a very special interest of their own, and I was able to collect this day, under the able guidance of Gibbs, eight br ten greatly-desired species, two rare sedges, a Pimelea (Suter’s), which is erstricled to this locality, Monro’s Forget-me-not-, and the little cousin of our famous Penwiper, Nothothlaspi Aus-tra-Ic, which is only found in Nelson and ■Ala rl borough. On the 29th we set out for Alt. Arthur and the “Mt. Arthur Plateau,” about 40 miles west- of Nelson, an expedition which was to prove one of the most strenuously interesting of our lives for all of us concerned. The party consisted of Mr F. G. Gibbs, of Nelson, who organised the whole; Air Pasco, n famous walker and climber, formerly well known in Ashburton and in Hawke’s Bay; Professor Stewart, of Canterbury College, and myself. Three of us had left the half-century well be-; hind us, the fourth was severely handicapped by injuries to his foot caused by I the nasty Germans on the famous day of Alessmes. Gibbs, who was guide and chief, was suffering from nieta tarsit is caused by the carrying of heavy swags on long journeys through this country; lie came with us at- great inconvenience to himself, especially in order to help me with my collections; his knowledge saved me weeks of work, and T am afraid lie suffered very severely on our big day.

Our starting-point was Heath’s Accommodation House, close to Mt. Arthur. We arrived there by motor from the railway about, midday, and left for the Plateau between 1 and 2 rum. Heath’s son came with us in charge of the packhorse. During tho whole day our mountain was enveloped in fog. and looked uglier and uglier as we drew near it. The walk to the hut on the Plateau took us about six or seven hours; a good la-idle track is followed by way of the Flora and Tnkaka Rivers through heavy hush up to the clear country at about 400Uft. Tt mined pretty heavily, and when we emerged upon the Plateau nt Salisbury’s Clearing we were in a very weird world of flying mists or misguide-! clouds, accompanied by showers of rain and sleet. We had to travel some miles on this table land before wo reached thr-i fine large hut rlose under the peak of Ml. Peel at tho Northern end of the Plateau. This famous Plateau lies between Alt. Peel and Aft. Arthur —an undulating, lofty table-land about 4000. feet high, partly clear of forest, but diversified with tongues and patches of beech with “pakihis” between them. It is largely grassed with the harsh carpet-grass. Danthonia Australis, and also carries a rich flora of bog-loving plants such as Sedges and Uncinias. Tt has been botanised by many well-known enthusiasts, such as T. ,F. Cheesemnn, Dr. Cockayne, and F. G. Gibbs. It was for many years a fairly prosperous goldfield : as many as forty men were camped permanently there at one time. ’Hie gold is said to lie all near the surface, and there ore many traces of the abandoned sluices still visible. Nobody lives there now.

Gibbs and T loitered behind the others observing and collecting till it was dark, and we only found the hut after some wandering and blundering in circles. The rain turned to snow about dusk, and the night was extremely cold. The hut is large and comfortable, but the fire smoked infernally. AVe collected in the bunks and spent tlje. night somehow. Stewart and I were cold enough, but Gibbs and Pasco were worse off, as T believe Gibbs put nearly all his blankets upon us. As wo were here, at 4000 feet, between Alt-. Peel and Alt. Arthur, it proved possible to score a “right, and left” — to climb two 6000-foot mountains in the one day—a chance one does not often get. Stewart, and I seL off for the top of Ml, Peel (6000 feet) between 3 and 4 a.in., without, troubling about any absurd conventions. Gibbs and Pasco determined to await us in the hut, but the sight of us disappearing up the slope was 100 much for Pasco, who came pelting after us. The snow was about six inches deep all over the mountain at tills time, and I was bitterly disappointed as a collector, but tbe weather bad cleared, anti a splendid day was before us. AVe. were all on the top by about 6 a.m., and looking tlown upon the Cobb Valley, which we admired hugely, and upon the ranges running north-westwards towards Cnllingwood. It was now line and not very windy, yet it was at this very moment that the schooner Omakn was wrecked near the entrance to Wellington Harbour, with tragic loss of life, in what was then declared to be “the worst storm ever known in Conk Strait”; this was only about 100 miles away from us. So strange are the vagaries of New Zealand weather. Immediately below the summit, of Mt. Peel is a fine tarn surrounded by steep rocks. I left mv mates and was obliged to collect in this neighbourhood. The snow could not lodge or lie long upon parts of these rocks, and I was able to get some plants here which T had longed for for years. But, “mistaking my instructions which within my brain did gyrate,” I failed to get the Celmisja which I most ardently desired, Celmisia vupcstris, which is only known to grow in this spot. I must- have been within a few yards of it, but searched only on the wrong side of a certain rocky ridge, and so missed it Close to the tam were thickets of a certain whipcord Veronica; this and n beautiful and rare Willow herb (Epilobium vernicoeum) were tbe chief prizes T bore off that morning before breakfast. By the time I had done with the tarn the snow was

melting fast; I re-ascended to the ridge, and rejoined my mates at the hut at about 8.

Here we found Gibbs ready with our breakfast, which was very welcome, very solid, but too hurried for pure enjoyment. The packhorse had gone homo with young Heath, and we travelled light.. We had now to retrace outsteps, re-cross the whole plateau, which would be about six miles long, and attack our number two mountain. To reach Alt. Arthur, we must traverse a large area of bush, ascend Gordon’s Pyramid (about 5000 feet), and then follow the ridge to the base of our peak. I filled my water-bottle at the stream by -Salisbury's Clearing, and after some casting about we entered the bush at a pointmarked years before by Gibbs, from which blazes had been made along the most convenient line. This bush is an awkward place to be lost in ; the formation is limestone, and it consists of a network of small gullies which have no outlet, mere troughs with closed ends, between which no straight track can be found. We negotiated this obstacle easily enough, following Gibbs’ old blazes, and reached Gordon's Pyramid not long after midday. The route now follows a horse-shoe ridge round a deep valley, keeping a good easy level right to tiie base of Mt. Arthur; but here Gibbs showed me a spot at the bottom of the valley where Cheeseman discovered a certain Senecio (S. glaucophyllus) which has never been seen elsewhere. Stewart accompanied me, like a. good sport, down to this place, whore an old moraine makes an odd artificial-looking bridge across the valley. On the way down I got my only specimen of a fine Olearia (O. suavis), but Cheeseman’s Senecio was not forthcoming; apparently it was an annual and riot yet up. The way up the opposite slope proved to be exceedingly steep and stony, and obstructed by a thick growth of the biggest Spaniards I have ever seen. We all met and lunched between two and three on the .rocks just below the final steep pinch of Mt. Arthur. It was now very hot indeed; no water was to be found, and my bottle did not go very far. The last part of the climb is upon bare rock, not slippery, fortunately, a$ it is limestone. Here I came upon a tiny Colobantlius which seems to be a new species. We all reached the top (6200 feet), a little after 3 p.m., feeling pretty serious. What remains clearest in mv mind about this part of the journey is the clear view of Mt. Owen, south of our peak, another limestone mountain of very curious appearance, and the ill-will of my companions because I had hurried ahead up the lastpart in order to get a few minutes hunting for n certain little Gentian which grows on the summit in its season, but was not at home to me after all.

From the top of -Mt. Arthur our way led along another long spur hack to the Flora Saddle, at first upon grassy slopes, but later through the same old. beech forest by a good track. As this spur is interrupted by a precipitous gap, we had to descend into a rough basin and regain the spur by steep climbing beyond it. This was fairly arduous and took a good deal of time. It was after 6 p.m. when we halted bv a. small stream in the bush beyond the Floi’a Saddle and got water to drink at last. We were obliged to make a fairly long stop, as wo were all pretty faggedthree of us had now been going for thirteen hours; both Gibbs and Stewart were going lame. Stewart and I now

pushed on, and it was dark before we got out of the bush; we had a lantern, a most ingenious folding-up affair lent us by Gibbs ,bul we were unable to fathom its secret and went on in the dark. The track is rough and here and precipitous above and below, so we had to go slowly, and my companion's old wound gave him great trouble. We reached Heath's a little after 10 p.m., after eighteen hours’ going. Gibbs and Pasco were nearly an hour behind us, poor Gibbs very lame. At Heath’s we had rather expected to sneak in and go to bed like guilty things, but we found the whole household up and awaiting us with a most sumptuous “tea,” including raspberries and cream, so wo threw prudence to the winds and waded in. It was a very pleasant winding up to a most, glorious day to find ourselves welcomed so kindly and so hospitably at such an hour. 1 believe all my companions thoroughly enjoyed this great day as a piece of pure adventure and an athletic feat--probably all the more as we were so sere and yellow a party—in spite of fatigue and lame feet and sore thirst, but it was for me not only this. Owing to the great Ideal knowledge of Gibbs, the fruit of long experience and many hard journeys, also to his selfsacrifice and willingness to help, the day was also, for me, one of the finest collecting days I ever had or am ever likely to have. Of all the rare and valuable plants recorded in this locality by so many different collectors, I think I only missed three, the G'emisia and Senecio of which I have spoken, and a, species of Carex. I obtained my first specimens of many beautiful plants, among which Mvosotis concinna. on Mt. Peel, was perhaps the chief, and others only valuable for their rarity, such as the tiny Alpine Poranthera (P. alpina), a member of the Spurge family which grows only in the mountains of the Nelson province. , When I try to calculate how long it might have taken me to find all these fine things for myself, had I been alone c,n this plateau and these two mountains, I am compelled once more to take off my hat to Mr F. G. Gibbs, and to record, so far as my feeble means permit, my gratitude to him for all he did for me.