TASMAN CHALET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21989, 26 June 1933, Page 8

TASMAN CHALET

OLD BALL HUT TRANSFORMED OFFICIAL OPENING CEREMONY (From Our Special Reporter.) THE HERMITAGE, June 24. To-day marked an epoch in the progress of alpine winter sports with the opening of the Tasman Chalet, and a gathering of 150 people from Dunedin to Christchurch spent an exceedingly happy day at the ski-ing area on the Ball Glacier. The Tasman Chalet, formerly Ball Hut, has been greatly improved by the Mount Cook Tourist Company, the sleeping accommodation being provided with extensions for 99 people, together with facilities that place the ski-ing ground within half an hour’s walk of a comfortable hostel. The snow was in excellent condition, and the morning and afternoon were spent in ski-ing by both novices and experts. Ball Hut was first erected in 1891, but the original building was wiped out by an avalanche, and in 1924 a building was erected on practically the same site, and with the extensions will be known as Tasman Chalet. Mr R. L. Wigley introduced Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P., Mayor of Christchurch, to the gathering at the chalet this afternoon, and stated that ski-ing was gaining in popularity, clubs being formed in many places. In the Mount Cook Region Mr Harold Elworthy had shown the skiers some of the finer points in the sport, which had correspondingly progressed. Mr Wigley urged the people of the South Island to support the organisations for attracting overseas visitors to this island. They should appreciate the glorious scenic resorts of the South Island and should organise to combat the activities of the North Island. Mr Sullivan, in declaring the chalet officially opened, compliment;ed Mr Wigley and the Mount Cook Tourist Company on the enterprise shown in extending and reconstructing the old Ball Hut. The additional accommodation would facilitate and increase the popularity of the fascinating mountain sport of ski-ing, increasing every year the number of people who took up that hardy and health-giving pastime. Much of the attention now given to the sport was the result of the continuous and courageous efforts of the Mount Cook Company, which had obstinately refused to accept the prevailing depression as a just cause for accepting a falling off in business, but had carried on in a manner that should set an excellent example to the controlling of other forms of business. He had not had an opportunity of going to Switzerland, but scores of experienced visitors had confirmed him in the conclusion that the South Island had been endowed with scenic gifts unrivalled in the world. He’ would like to see this country redoubling its efforts to increase its tourist traffic, particularly in the South Island, and particularly would he like to see a scheme worked out that would make it easier for a large number of New Zealanders to see the wonders of their own country. Several countries in had evolved such schemes, funds being built up to enable working people to visit the scenic resorts. These funds were contributed to by the Governments and by a body of employers, and sooner or later New Zealand would evolve such a scheme, and the sooner the better. He thought there was a good deal of truth in Mr Wigley’s point of view that the people of the South Island had not fully appreciated the wonders of their country or realised the asset it possessed. Among the most interesting areas of the country, and, in-; deed, of the world, was the Mount Cook region, with its unrivalled facilities for mountain sport. He hoped that a competent South Island organisation woulfj be formed for the purpose of making the wonders of the Mount Cook area and the southern lakes known to the world better than was the case at present. Many famous alpinists had been associated with Ball Hut in the past, ns the hut had been the jumping-off* place for ascents of Mount Cook, and its future as Tasman Chalet would be even more noted as the rendezvous for alpine winter sports as well as the starting place for many climbs of the Alps in the Mount Cook region.