A Pioneer of Fiordland

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21456, 1 April 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

A Pioneer of Fiordland

|j 'ADVENTURES OF ANDREAS REISCHEK j|

IN CHALKY SOUND

No. IV. After returning from His hazardous sojourn in Dusky Sound, Andreas Reischek spent the two years 1885-1886 in Auckland. Toward the end of [IBB6 he went to Dunedin, boarded the Stella once more, with hia faithful Caesar, and set out for Fiordland. But: this time he had a human friend tsrith him also, a Mr. Rimmer. Early in January they landed at Chalky Sound, some distance to the south of Dusky Sound. The first experience was not a cheering cine. Even while they were brewing a billy of tea, a fearful storm broke upon them, and for three weeks St rained and rained, as it can rain only in Fiordland! After this depressing experience they decided to build a hut, and the very firat fine day they cleared balf-an-acre of bush and erected a whare. Mr. Ri.mmer busied himself in the useful work of laying out a kitchen garden, i.i which he sowed vegetable seed. He also cut bush tracks which enabled Reischek to strike out farther hfield in his enthusiastic quest. But in one thing; Rimmer was not quite so Successful. . 1 There is a'quaint touch of humour in the following passage which will be appreciated by all those who know anything olf real camp life in the wilds. •*' I taught Rjmmer how to make bread," writes Reischek, " for in my youth ] had learnt the baker's trade. But his first sample was not so light as it might have been. I suggested sending it as a model to the Adelaide Exhibition!" [That reminded me of my one solitary experience in breadmaking years ago when my brother and I were camping among the redwoods in the Santa Cruz mountains. My instructor was an elderly Swede, who was in charge of the Big Creek dam beside which we were camping. In some miraculous way my batch of bread turned out the best we had during the month we were there—but a subsequent attempt at bread rolls, undertaken one afternoon in a spirit of high adventure when Ewald the Swede was out of the way, was so 'disastrous that I hastily gathered the whole lot up, took them into the forest and buried them beneath a redwood. And if the blue jays and the squirrels bad not discovered them and dragged the remains out on to the track, my dark secret might have gone forever undiacovered! So as I read of poor Rimmer's initial efforts as a baker I felt a little F' ar 'g of sympathy and understanding. "April /came in with rain and storm," continues the diary, "and I began to get disheartened with the loss of time and money, ana the small success we had had." You will remember that Reischek's object in making these trips was to procure native birds and specimens of the Bora and fauna of Fiordland. It was by no meana easy to secure these, for even so far back as forty years ago rats had taken terrible toll of the native bird life of these remote districts. However, Reischek was not only a great naturalist but a great explorer. He meant to learn as much aa possible of this fascinating region. " We blazed a trail from the Three Brothers to a hill in the direction of Dusky Sound," he writes. "To the west we found three lakes, which we named Lake Hector, after Professor Hector, Lake Thomas, after Professor Thomas of Auckland, and Lake Frauer, after Captain Fraser." It will probably be interesting newo to' many Auckland boys and girls of this generation and the last to know that one of our most distinguished professors has thus been paid, the honour of having a. Fiordland lake named after him, that honour being doubled in its bestowal by so notable an explorer. The explorers fouitd several other lakes, and I am sure none of you will think the honour ill-bestowed when I tell you one little lake was called Lake but because it was Caesar himself who actually did discover it while out bunting one day. You will be interested next week to read of Reiichek's adventures with the brown rats that swarmed in Chalky Sound.