SOUTHERN LAKES DISTRICT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21612, 6 April 1932, Page 10

SOUTHERN LAKES DISTRICT

BEAUTY OF MOUNTAIN SCENERY EXTOLLED BY WORLD TRAVELLER .J- { An enthusiastic admirer of the lake and mountain scenery of Central Otago is .Mr William W. Ewan, who recently spent two months in the district. Mr Ewan, whose tribute is the more valuable because he has travelled over most parts ot the world, writes to the Daily Times a=> follows: — A visitor to this country cannot repay it for much of the pleasure afforded him, but at least he can try to express in words his appreciation. After spending the last four months in the lake and mountain districts, I feel I can say that in no other country I have visited can the average weather conditions'/be* more favourable for outdoor exercise . or excursions. Naturally one must be a lover of such scenery to appreciate it to the full, but there can' be few who, can travel through the highland districts k>£ interior and remain unimpressed by. their grandeur and majesty. It has been said that comparison are odious—and rightly so, I think. Every scenic country has its special attractions, but to the true mountain lover.mone, X fancy, can beat, this, part of New Zealand. I* spent some weeks in the vicinity pt Lakes Hawea and Wanaka, where the higher mountains were all still snowclad in the earlier part of the season, there in every direction. onej. daily finds fresh beauties to admire .in the different mountain ranges that meet the eye at all points. The more distant peaks, dominated by Mount Aspiring, are in themselves worth the journey to see. . Lake Wakatipu has perhaps somewhat different charms, but very real ones all the same, and its own very special llemarkables are indeed well named. The play of colour and hourly change in thenbeauties is indeed remarkable. Seldom liave I seen a mountain panorama so easily viewed,—if one wishes so. from an easy chair on Queenstown’s lovely gardens. The lake itself is full of contrasts, and from the carriage road leading from Queenstown to Moke Lake, ever rising as it does in the first few miles, views are obtained that are difficult to beat anywhere. Scotland’s poet of a hundred years ago wrote of “Glenorchy’s proud mountains, and here at the head of the lake they stand, prouder and loftier than their brothers in the far-off Homeland! There is much more bush at the head of Lake Wakatipu, and the forest-covered hills at Paradise make a change of scene- with the barer hills at the lower end of the lake. The view up the Dart Valley with its miles of “ beaches ” is one long to be remembered, with Chaos, Knox, and Cosmos lifting their snowclad summits in the clear blue of a perfect day, or with the angry clouds wreathing their tops at the coming storm. From charming little Diamond Lake at Paradise to the bleaker shores of Te Anau is a great change, but the lake itself might well claim a whole chapter of praise. Theii to Manapoun, said by manv to be the most beautiful lake in New Zealand, and certainly very difficult to place second to any. In the clear, crisp air of early autumn it is hardly possible to imagine the photographic clearness with which sky, mountains, and clouds are reflected on the waters of this lake. One could write many pages in appreciation of such scenery, but I hardly possess the gift of doing so. Your own reproductions in the Otago Witness are much better tributes to the scenic charms of the highlands and liordland. In conclusion I cannot do better than quote what a great Canadian mountain lover wrote on receiving your last Christmas number which I sent to him from here: “The Christmas edition of the Otago Witness sent me explains much of your liking for New Zealand! It is an extremely creditable effort on the part of the publishers, and was a genuine surprise to me. The mountain scenes are particularly attractive.”