OUR HOMELAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20514, 15 March 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR HOMELAND.

Br ELS IB K. UOHTON.

TOWARD THE ALPS. THE TURQUOISE LAKE. The Silver Plane passed swiftly over tho high plateau of the Mackenzio Country and down to tho shores of a beautiful blue lake, set like a bluo jewel boneath the snow-capped mountains. This was Lake Tekapo, fed by snow rivers descending from the great Alpino glaciers beyond. Tekapo was not liko any lako the voyagers had seeu before, cither in North Island or in Westland, where tho lakes arc crystal clear, fringed with stately bush and drooping ferns. This lake of tho Alps was not clear and shining, but milky blue in colour, like melted turquoise mixed with mother-o'-pearl. High above the lake towered Mount Cook, Aorangi the Cloud Piercer, his majesty and beauty dominating all the lesser giants of that Alpine region. Although forty miles away, the great mountain looked so close that it seemed almost to rise from the opposite shore, and Pixie and Pat found it hard to believe that those glittering ice-mailed peaks were indeed so far distant. Over hill and plain the voyagers continued their journey, the next point of interest- in the panorama outspread beneath being Lake Pukaki, another snow-fed lake, not so large as Tekapo, but reflecting an even moro wonderful picture of Alpino majesty and beauty. From Lake Pukaki, Aorangi was seen in new aspect, his lofty peak shining liko a slender silver pyramid uplifted high ill the sky, just as Pixie and Pat had seen it that first memorable day when travelling into South Westland. But tho King of Mountains was remote, far distant that day; now ho was very closo. so close that the children could see the vast rifts and precipices falling away in sheer ice-walls and drops a thousand feet in depth. A lovely bluo mist floated round the feet of the mountain giants, and the picture reflected in the glassy waters of Pukaki was one that held Pixie and Pat in wordless admiration. Now the road beneath ran through desolate tussock country, with the snowcapped peaks of tho Ben Ohau range on one side and the shining waters of Lake Pukaki on the other. Here and there were th n homesteads of lonely sheep-stations and grooves of trees, but the whole aspect of the country was unlike anything Pixie and Pat had ever seen, save when passing over tho tussock leagues of Tongariro National Park. But it was the glory of the mountains that held them now, not the thought of desolation or the loneliness of those who dwelt at the feet of tho everlasting hills. The snowy peaks of the Sealey and Liebig Ranges came into closer view, and far away, at the head of the Tasman Valley, towered Aorangi's majestic neighbour, Mount Sefton. The picture of this grand company of mountain monarchs, with their peaks mantled in snow, rising from eight to twelve thousand feet in a sky of cloudless blue, was one of sublime beauty, eclipsing in its majesty anything the children had seen in their voyaging. A great rocky bluff, towering a thousand feet above the valley of the Tasman, came into view. " That is Sebastopol," announced the guide, " and just beyond it is—" "The Hermitage! I know that's the Hermitage!" interrupted Pixie excitedly, pointing to a handsome gabled building set on a picturesque plateau beneath the lofty heights of the Sealey Eange.