CLIMBERS LONG TRIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21803, 18 May 1934, Page 7

CLIMBERS LONG TRIP

ROUGH AREA TRAVERSED C FIFTEEN HOURS* TRAMP A long journey through rough counV try was: made by five members of tho Canterbury Mountaineering Club at thoi * last weak-end. Their trip of 26 miles, 1 in which they traversed the Cass Riverj to its source, on the Cass saddle, and then followed the Harper River from j 2 its headwaters to the intake at Lake Coleridge, took 15 hours. The party left Christchurch by train;';' on Saturday evening, arriving at Cas9 at midnight.. They left at six o'clock on Sunday morning, following the Cassj River to Cass saddle, on an offshoot ofj the Craigieburn Range. The river valley is deeply gorged in places and the slopes of the hills thickly bushed. The vegeta-T tion was white after a heavy frost, and! the ranges wero covered with snow to at': fairly low level. On the saddle a young 12-pointerj ' deer was stalked and shot, other deer, being seen i:n the vicinity. In the steed . valley to the south down which thaj - Harper Stream flows from Cass saddle,, snow lay deep in places, and the buslt and gravel were frost-bound, although; the sun! waii shining from a cloudless!* sky. The river gained quickly in vohnno,-)'" being fed by many streams cascading!" down from gloomy valleys. _ Lower down the valley opened out toj river flats, where the party fully appre-4. ciated the warmth of the sun. Deer,* hares and.paradise duck were found toi* be fairly plentiful, and there were also: traces of wild pig. Darkness found tho * party traversing swampy ground, and! three or four hours were spent crossing" and recrossing tho river by torchlight! and in picking a way across the swamps. Tho Avoca River, carrying more water than the Harper itself, was forded, and tho Lake Coleridgo intake was reached at 9 p.m.