MOUNT COOK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20290, 24 December 1927, Page 5

MOUNT COOK.

REMINISCENCES OF A VISIT. A WONDERLAND OF WONDERS. Mount Cook! What a thrill these two words arouse, if only ones imagination can conjure up all that is inspiring, criaiifl, and magniticent—the handicraft oi Nature, at once ruthless and kindly. With most of us, our knowledge of New Zealand’s alpine wonders is confined to what is taught us at school, but how inadequate is this compared with what is gleaned from the real! And yet now few make little or no attempt to grasp ■ the opportunities to visit this wonderland of wonders! One of the finest movements among our educational forces in New Zealand owes its genesis and consequent success to private enterprise. To the Mount Cook Motor Company with its recently inaugurated scheme of travelling concessions, every school child who visits the Hermitage owes a debt of gratitude - ana thanks ; for what hoy or girl so privileged will ever forget the lessons of practical geography given in the schoolroom ot Nature—-the fresh and invigorating atmosphere, the suidit skies, the toweling heights of rock, the slow-moving masses of tightly-packed ice, the long maraines heaped high with the accumulation M thousands of years, the avalanches, fie fascinating and wohderons ice caves, ami the pillowed blue and ice-cool lakes. |° this galaxy may bo added exercises of the best type—climbing, riding, shingle- sliding, skating, snowballing, ski-ing, and a thousand and one other _ influences winch transport the human mind into another world, carefree, happy, and healthy. For the first time in history the Otago Roys’ High School recently sent a quota of some 50 hoys in charge of six members of the staff—a typical group of New Zealand’s youth determined to seek the best of the Hermitage’s hospitality and all that constitutes the lure of snow and dizzy height. Although Dunedin was eft in rain last Saturday morning, the weathei soon cleared, and by the lime the paity climbed on to the company’s powerful transport buses at Timarn hopes for one days to follow raised high hopes, which were admirably fulfilled. A fast trip along a splendid road through Pleasant Point, Fairlio, up and over Burke’s Pass, touching Lake Tekapo with its oil-hko stillness and brightly lined blue, and along Pukaki, with its beauty of colour and reflection ; on and on over wellmetalled roads, till at least the Hermitage was reached about half-past o. No sooner had the party arrived then they were sumptuously treated to a wonderful dinner, fit for royalty. The next day broke fine, and Aorangi was looking its very best, glistening with its majestic mantle of purest white—the very incarnation of the Spirit of Kings. In the morning the junior hoys with three masters set out for a bracing walk *,o the Stocking (Racier, while the seniors with three other masters and Guide Stinson set off on their trek U) tlio Ball Hut, which was reached in good time. Each hov carried a pack of an average weight of ICNb—heavy enough for the uninitiated traveller in a broiling heat along stony tracks. For tne juniors Monday gave a trip to Sebastopol and the Children’s Glacier. Of this party some half dozen climbed to Hie highest point from the Red Lake, obtaining an unrivalled view as tlio reward of nn° arduous ascent. The Ball Hut section visited the Hockstettcr Ice halls end touched on the Tasman Moraine. On Monday these boys left this place ")f magnificence and wonder of avalanches amf ice drifts, and arrived at the Hermitage after a fast three and a-hait hours’ journey. All the boys followed with intense interest the attempt of Guides Pope, Williams, and Rnistarcl to scale Mount Cook, and, needless to say, shared in Hie rejoicing at their success which was obtained under record-breaking conditions. On Tuesday morning the party broke ramp, and regretfully gave hearty and sincere expression to their feelings as nart acknowledgment of the wonderful treatment by the hostel staff, not forgetting the ever-obliging chef. Downhill on the return journey raced the buses from warm to cold and from sunshine to rain, and from Timaru o Dunedin tire discomforts of train travel were lost in happy memories of an eventful trip. Space does not permit to tell of the more intimate and personal incidents, the much-appreciated concert by the boys, the charm of the lady entertainer on the staff, items from the school’s smallest boy and from the masters, in chiding an entirely unrehearsed bed scene, of kea hunting expeditions, of stone throwing championships, and of goodnatured rollicking fun, which fairly bubbled over cverv moment of the dav. All were in the happiest , mood throughout. and how could it, h 0 otherwise in such surroundings “ thousands of feet above worry level ’ ?