THE WILDS OF WESTERN OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2524, 30 July 1902, Page 73

THE WILDS OF WESTERN OTAGO.

THE EXPLORATION OF THE FREEMAN VALLEY, LAKE MANAPOURI.

(By Hexky Fchvi.ee.)

(See Illustrations elsewhere in this issue.)

Visitors from the old land ha\ c a habit of saying, "Oh, but your country Las no history," to which we reply, '"Yours has no mystery." Much of Maoriland has only been looked over in a cuitory way, v, hile

not a few parts are yet marked on the map, "Unexplored at present," and it is to one of these patches that the following description refers, an area lying north-west of Lake Manapouri, drained chiefly by the Freeman River, which enters the extreme' north end of the north arm of that lake. Before entering on any description of the \ alley, a few notes on the HISTORY OF ITS EXPLORATION

may be of interest. The Freeman Rirer takes its name from the late Freeman Jackson, and there is no knowledge by the dwellers at the lake of any attempt to find whence it came until within quite recent years. The fir?t to break ground of whom I have any note were Mcs-rs J. B. Dore (of Manapouri) and S. Steven (of Mararoa). Starting as. early in tho &eason as Noxomber in 1895 they reached a point now known as Cliff ,Camp, approximately some five miles up, discovering on the way gome fine falls, one of them now known as "Steven Fall," being a particularly fine one, height as yet unknown, but certainly well up in the hundreds. The Steven Burn is the largest tributary of the Freeman coming in from the east, and the fall occurs in the full body of this stream. It will yet be an attraction to many a tourist, and is probably only some three or four miles- from the lake. At Cliff Camp wet weather set in, and though they waited two days they wore compelled to return. Before doing so, however, they climbed a bluff to spy out the land, and, if possible, see the head of the valley, but were disappointed. Mr J. E. Rithter, of Invercargil!, went some distance up this \ alley prospecting, but did not add anything to tho pre\ious explorers' work. After a considerable lapse of time (Christmas. 1898) a parly consisting of Messrs J. H. Baird, H. Kidd,. and the writer 6et out to accomplish as much as time and weather wouTd permit. Our primary object

was rather to enjoy

a holiday than to ex-

plore. yet we were singularly successful, notwithstanding the fact that the river wal fairly high, which prevented much use being made of the beaches to travel on. "We found bill-hook marks up to Cliff Camp, where the river had to be crossed. Once over we left these marks of civilisation behind and struck out into the unknown. From here the country became increasingly rough, and we presently crossed a tributary coming from the west, which, though carrying a fair quantity of water, we did not follow up. This stream is now known as Gilmour Burn, and more will b» said regarding it later on. Frdm here it was steady climbing for over an hour through a steep gorge of no great length. At the head of this gorge was a

junction of two streams, one, which we - named the Omaki, coming in from the west and the- Freeman proper from the north. We decided to follow up the Omaki, and epent the afternoon there. A short distance above the junction we came on an enormous avalanche- recently fallen, which tad come down from the north side of the

valley, and sweeping clear across with terrific forco, le\ oiling the bush in its course, piled itself against tho south wall, where it remained slowly melt in cf away Half an hour's travel b-ouclit us to a beautiful waterfall, embroidered in green, of conoiderable breadth and unusually symmetrical — quit© a picture. Near the head of the \n.l!ev we camp, to the foot of another fall, or penes of falls, rising step above step, each \ertieally above the la«t, fo straight indeed that the whole series

•was visible from tlip> foot. It was unique in our experieni'i of fall^>, and we called it *• "T!ie Graucl Staircase." At t]iis ]soint an uulooked-for incident prevented further exploration for that day. though we wore just at the foot of the saddle, which, however, we could see no wav to negotiate. IvHlurninp that night to Cliff Camp, we- made an early start next morning, and followed up the main stream, and at noon struck the finest fall of the trio, being about a chain wide jmd perhaps 40ft high. Ju»t above it lay a beautiful lako in a perfect setting of •wooded bluffs, with bare rocks projecting

Lrr» and there, wltile liieh above lowered

peaks of sjreat hcieht. This la^-o — wliicli v.c named after the river, for want of any otlier — is sitiiatpd just at the ton of tho bush line, say 3000 ft. About a irile on or less we struck our sPcoucl lake — a peifect gem. surrounded on two side' «itli a beaili of purest

whitr 1 =nnd

I T n' to tin's point wo I'sd twice

scon "tlio FaJclle" on al'far I—tli"1 — tli" first time to fMul Frrem.-i" T.p.Uo ; ,t Ihn vpof- and tlip next time to lock clow n on '"Tj.ike BJmeivn." £S cue of tAis juu'ix oUjiilciiDd it. Ju-at Lc-

' yond this lake the country rose suddenly like a rampart run across the valley, and this we climbed, expecting to look; down on another lake, or to nnd our=ehcs on the wished-for saddle. In this, tco, we were disappointed, but wo looked ahead to two gaps or passes, one towards the west or north-west, and one to the north or northeast. A short distance and the goal was won, and standing in the pass we looked ciowu a wide >aliey, holding away southwest, with a silver streak far down in the bu?h. Just at our feet lay a lake draining by a short stream to this new ri\cr, whose identity we could not locate, as we were unable to decide whether it would reach BracUhaw Sound, which we hoped, or hold away further =outh. We climbed some clistauce up a big mountain on our left, but got no further enlightenment on the point. The valle-j seemed to round a peak and disappear to our right or westward. Turning now to the other pas=, which was sr'.ightly higher, but easily accessible, we looked down on a low-lying valley, in which we saw water in two places. Tins, we expect to find, will be the Delta Burn and lead to the South Fiord of Te Anau We stayed as long in this interesting spot as we dared, and at 5 pm. sta'-ted down to endeavour to make Cliff Camp that night, though it had taken some nine hours to come up. Well, we did it, but none of us are anxious to repeat the scramble. This closed this attempt. Wo had proved the existence of an easy pass to the western side of the range, but were still in the dark as to whither this pass would lead. Lite the same year Messrs S. Steven and J. Fowler went up the Awe Burn, which enters Manapouri from the west, a short distance below the Freeman. They had almest reached the head -when they were met by mist and rain, which continued without intermission for five dajs. Then provisions «m out — the usual fate of explorers — and they had to return. StPvens, however, was not to be discouraged. They had intended to get over the diiide by the Freeman Pa=s, but tried the Awe Burn as a sort of preliminary canter. So, if his companion's time was up, his was not, and if no one would go with h'm he would go alone and try to do something. So alone he started up tho Freeman, this time to Steven Burn, to climb abovo the falls, and see whence the stream came. Sam's luck, however, was out — it was etill raining, and for two days ho had to grin and bear it. Then he gave it up. The lake dweller? would have joked him on his return over his ill luck, but Ham was past the stage when banter wns acceptable. All tho information they could g^t out of him was. that he ';had to lay under a blasted log all the time; that he was cone with it, and so far as he was concerned .they could call the fail anything they blooming well liked." Having thus delivered himself lip left Manapouri, and it has known him no more More recently Mr S. H. Moreton tackled the Freeman, but only got a few miles up. At the beginning of the present year Messrs J. Oilman, jun., E. Coster, and J. Fowler went up the Freeman, meeting with more success. They reached Cliff Camp at noon tho sweond day, and rro»sing the river took the stream coming from the west pie\iously mentioned, which they supposed to be the Omaki. It proved to bo a pretty rough valley, rising rapidly to the sadd'c, which they climbed, but found it covered with ice so hard that only by cutting steps was it possible to walk on it. and it was abandoned. At this point an unfortunate accident to one of the party stopped in% estimation, and this most promising expedition added another failure to the list. Almost at the same time Mr S. H. Moreton attempted it with a number of his students, only to return a day or' two later unsuccessful. A month latPr Messrs W. Y. H. Hall and .T. Fowler attempted it yet again, but unfavourable weather set in and again the attempt was abandoned. This brings us down to

THE PRESENT EXPEDITION.

The writer had followed the^e attempt-;, and experienced as keen disappointment as did the explorers themselves, a» time and again was reported no success, until after the- J *»tuamed failure the question of ma 1 mg another move began to be I . discussed, late though it was. On mentioning the matter to Mi Hay vchief surveyor; »c at once furnished us with a prismatic compass to take bearings, and on 9th April wo started, the party consisting only of my brother and myself. At the lake we \*ere joined by Mr R. Murrell, a singularly fortunate circumstances, as three make a better party in any case, and all were good mountaineers and g-ood bu c hmen. The steam up lovely Manapouri in the s.s. Litiroa requires no description at this time of day ; enough be it to say that at 5 p.m. on a quiet autumn night thro© swag-laden tourists 6aid goodbye to Captain Dore, one of the first explorers before mentioned, and wound their way into the darkening bush. The n\ er for some distance up flows silent and slow, \aried hero and there by a babbling rapid, only excepting one fall of perhaps 20ft or po where the whole volume of the ii\er is concentrated into a narrow gulch and thrown over, a ma«s of histing white. Though novel, this fall is dibappointing, as the river is wide and carries a large body of water, and if the fall were spread o\er its width it would be a wondrous sight. As it is it is well worth a plate, but as we lad a copy taken three vars before we passed on. Having walked for an hour we camped, j ml next day made Chff Camj- h°foro 1 p m., thanks to the- low state of tl^-. river, winch allowed us to walk up the bed much of the wav Our afternoon meal was discussed at the junction of the Gilmour Burn, and then commenced the accent of the gorge. My companions may ha\e bemi somewhat sceptical regarding it* roughness bpforo starting, but we wero unanimous at the finish. The gorge onds at the junction of the Omaki. and up 'hie stream we went some 20 minutes' walk and camped 10£ hours from the. lake. Next morning we left a small htore of provisions hanging to a tree and continued up .stream. Half an hour brought us to the siglit of the avalarche. wh-rh we found quite meltod away, but leaving abundant marks of its \isit in boulders piled on each other in wild confusion and birch trees 2ft through snapped asunder like so many carrote. Tho force of an a\al!ineho such as this one must ]ia\t^ been enormous and the noise appalling. We found the Omaki Fall rather tame, owing to thp low state of the stream, and farther on the stream «a« dry. It «a= evidently running underground, however, as we struck it atrain pre^pntlv Th© travelling wa.« good until we re-aohed the foot of the Grand Staircß'e. wlicrp. it was \r-iy tto^n f)nr" at the top we l<?fi the bush, and were iiito c orub witU mow ornes and mountain flax Hore we had lun<->h and took -to<k of our suiroiuidinps r.crure to youi-<lf a wall of rocL scarred and rugged, <,ny 2000 ft high on two sulc^ : tl'i- 11-« «!<!•'- o F th- Orn.'l.i Vnl Icy. At tho hoad the-o vnll- rlo"«d round in a «orl of nmnliitho'it' r» of -ibout half tlir* hoicrli t of tho sui'" 0 . v. hilc lno',.m«r cldVn the \ alley we e&ccied bu,t a tnile dieUut from

' Spire Peak, tho king of .the Freeman. This Spire Peak is a sort of finger-post for this region. If you lose your bearings you look 1 for Spire Peak, and scarcely ever look in ' vain from any part of the Freeman. Omaki, lor Gilmour Burn. Turning again to the I saddle at the head we anxiously scanned it to see whether it could be climbed, but could not agree as to its feasibility. However, we went up stream, making for the crorge out of which ir came. It proved to be a mere j "chimney." and seemed more hopeless than ! before However, one of the party tackled j the difficult part and slowly and carefully continued the ascent. Once above it he waved his camera stand to his companions, who meanwhile had found a new peak in the north-east standing high above its fellows. What it is we have not yet proved, but ' Us bearing seems to agree with Mount Maury | (Te Anau). Our path now lay up this i goige or "chimney," and pretty rough it was, 1 but in due course wo found ourselves on a i waste of glacier bed with the glacier all vanished. What a wa«te it was. those white bleached looking stones lying e\erywhcre, with here and there a laßoon of ice-water, the whole maiked by one peculiarity— viz., there was not a leaf nor a blade of grass, ' nor a sign of vegetation of any description. ! Thi=i probably indirates that a glacier usually lie« here, and t'\at it is only during a small part of the year and pc=-?iblv only in a veiy dry year, that it is clear. Just at the bach of this wast" rose a rampart growing the mual stunted tussock of these altitudes, and this we mounted and ;&t ourselves down to note our surroundings. j (To be continued.)