FOREST AND PLAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18025, 25 February 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

FOREST AND PLAIN.

CAMPING AT WAIMARINO.

BY ELSIE K. MQBTON.

A wido stretoh of tussock agleatn in the gold of sunrise, the musical trill of a tui in a beech tree, and tho splash of a' little creek singing its way through tho forest—a morning of sunshine and song gave sweet introduction to a camping holiday, on the Waimarino Plains at the foot of Ruapehij. The night had been a wild one, but the rising sun had already swept the rain clouds far over the horizon, and tho world was bathed in glittering radiance, such as comes only on a morning of sunshine after a night of storm. It was the real mountain atmosphere, crystal clear, sharp, and literally sparkling, an atmosphere inexpressibly delicious to lungs that for many weeks had breathed only the humid, heavy air of seagirt Auckland. To Aucklanders born, and living all their lives within sound of the sea, Tongariro National Park is a priceloss possession, but Auckland has not realised that yet. To some, the words convey a picture of gftm mountain heights and a barren wilderness of plain, to others, a region of ice and snow, crater and crevasse, into which only the hardened mountaineer may safely venture. Very little one ever hears of the beauty of forest and plains, of that vast tract at the foot of Ruapehu, the twentyseven thousand aores of the Military Reserve which adjoins the National Park. To many, the distant heights, the conquest of ice-capped peaks, long trips to remoto fastnesses of the three great mountains make strongest appeal, but not all are of the mountaineer strain, and to these others there is the beauty, of the plains, the forest, and the rivers. In them there is a wealth of beauty undreamed of. by the Aucklander, who year by year has spent his holiday by the sea. It is hard indeed to shake the allegiance vrhich we give so freely and gladly to the splendid ocean breakers thundering on West Coast beaches, to the sparkling warmth of the seas of harbour and gulf, but once you have seen the golden sea of the tussock, set with green islets of forest, once you have glimpsed sunset or sunrise on the three great mountains, have breathed the splendid air of the uplands, you will forget the call of the sea, and seek the refreshment of body and soul that comes froin a sojourn the region of the everlasting hills.

Sunset on the Mountains. Sunset on the three great mountains on a clear evening is a sight to remember always. Long before tie sun sinks below the horizon, a wonderful glow sweeps across the plains, and enwraps the rugged slopes of Tongariro and Ngaruaboe < in almost unearthly radiance. Little whisps of cloud, like rose-winged angels, hover above the crater of Ngaruahoe, from which riseithin, straight columns of smoke and steam. In the west, the sun, a sphere of crimson fire, sinks into a bed of smoky gold and rose, and long shafts of radiance mount into a sky where the gold merges into a strangely beautiful glow of green and blue. ~ . . As the warm, coppery glow.dies on Ngaruahoe, and its stark ridges and valley 8 are veiled with, misty amethyst, the snowy peaks of Ruapehu catch the last flickering flame of fire frqm the west; long after the forests of The Foothilla, tho sheer, sharp ridge of The Pinnacles, are deep in evening shadows, the snow-fields and glaciers of the two great, peaks, Pare-te-tai-tonga and Ruapehu, hold the afterglow of the west, • and the stars are faintly sparkling in a dear, cold sky, ere that rosy flush pales in the shadows of night.

The Beauty of the Plains, To the camper on the plains, no less than to the energetio mountaineer, the National Park offers unique and bountiful attraction. Sis miles along the Wai-marino-Tokaanu Road, a .rough cart-track Branches off to the Whakapapa Hut, and hereabouts there are many delightful camping sites, ideally situated for those who do not wish to undertake the strenuous exertions of mountain climbing. Here the wide expanse of the plains is broken by many beautiful tracts of beech forest, which edge the tussock in curiously regular crescent, bays and promontories, with hero and there an islet of dark green in the midst of a. golden sea. In spring and early summer, the plains are overlaid with a bright carpet of tiny flowers, and even up to a week or two ago, there was a wealth of beauty blooming there by the roadside. We found dainty little bluebells, white 6now-holls, pink and white and blue orchids, and mingi-mingi berries, orange, white, pink and crimson. Great clumps of flax with spears of handsome bloom brought the tiris chuckling and trilling from the forest in quest of honey. Here and there in the tussock we found pretty little tufts of heather, the purple bloom_ showing up in charming contrast amid the dull gold of snow' grass and rushes. Although it is now ten years since heather was planted in the park, it grows only in occasional small patches, and viewing the vast area of mountain and plain, one could but wonder if those who have bo vigorously dcoried its introduction as a " pest" have ever actually seen those little purple patches set in that almost limitless expanse of tussock country. The imagination that can picture those thousands of acres of toll, coarse grass, flax, and rushes over-run with the littlo plant blooming so modestly, # even after ten years' acclimatisation, is one which any writer well might envy, while in the same category may be placed the zeal that was recently responsible for the tearing up of the little foxgloves which bloomed so prettily on the bare clay banks and roadside by the Whakapapa-iti Bridge. So zealous are these good souls that no touch of foreign colour shall intrude upon the sombre tones of tho landscape of tho plains, that one wonders why they have never attacked the dandelions au'd thistle which grow so prolifically on uplands and plains alike!

By Forest and River. One of the most delightful features of a holiday on 'the plains i s the beauty of forest and creek. The Mahuia, the Tawhai, the Whakapapa-iti, and Whaka-papa-nui, all swift mountain streams, contain ideal pionic-places along their bushclad banks. Here, too, a mile or two from the main road, are steep, fernwalled gorges, snowy waterfalls that thunder down into deep pools of blue, and swirling rapids that trace a pattern of foamy white against the great dark boulders of the creek bed. The forest is another attraction ot tms wonderful region, a forest carpeted with rare ferns and mosses, unknown to the bush farther North, where toy green wrens and bush canaries, friendly little black tom-tits and fantails hop from twig to twig beside ypu, where the shinine"cuckoo, native pigeon, tm, parakeets, and that melancholy bird the morepork, all live peaceful unmolested lives. All the native birds originally in the bush are still represented there; in happy contrast to the policy of destruction that has marked the ruin of so many of Auckland's northern forests, the greatest care is taken to preserve all the natural beauties of Tongariro National lark, so thaf not onlv wo of to-day, but future generations, may fully and freely enjoy the rich heritage of this splendid area of mountain and plain.