THE WILDS OF WESTERN OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2525, 6 August 1902, Page 73

THE WILDS OF WESTERN OTAGO.

THE EXPLORATION OF THE FREEMAN VALLEY, LAKE MAXAPOURI.

By Hexet Fowleb.

(Concluded.) Looking southward, at our feet almost lay «, narrow valley; at its head, close at our left, a low saddle into & valley eastward, ■which my brother immediately recognised as the Gilmour Burn. How very near his party was to reaching this point we began to realise. Looking across our new valley we saw several lakes or tarns in their basins of black rock, draining T>y short streams into the valley, while above them towered a peak that only once uncovered his head to let us see him, and then wrapped himself in mist Again. Wo promptly christened him Mount Anchu (misty). Turning westward we found our valley turning due north with a very sharp turn and disappearing behind a fairly high peak. A short council of war was held, and it was decided that we climb the peak, by which time the mist had cleared and we had spread at our feet a panorama of mountain and valley, lake and river, sparkling waterfall and glistening glacier, fantastic peaKs and blue distance, such as does not often fall to the lot even of a mountaineer. We could now form a better idea of the country in a general way. To the east the Omaki and its junction with the Freeman, and, farther etill, Spire Peak ; a trifle southward the Gilmour Burn, and — stay! What is that sharpened pinnacle away over the divide to the south-east? There is no mistaking it. TJiat sky-piercer stands at the mouth of the Freeman, on the lake, and is known as Steep Peak. There is some mistake about its name, however, «5 Steep Peak is marked on most of the map 3at the mouth of the Oonah Burn ; so another nam* has to be grafted on to this one — always a confusing thing to do. However, we have marked it "Mount Hoiki," from its shape. This peak gave us a good check as to our position, as it gave us a triangle. True, we knew the distance of neither of the sides, but, even where all was guesswork, it served- as & ehcrk. Now for the valley one» more. Almost due west we found it joining our wide valley of three years ago, which we could now follow far to the northward to its head, with smaller valleys joining it all round. At its head, just at the top of tho bush line, lay a lake of considerable size, which we christened Lake Eva, and one near us, also of some size, Lake Norma. Ju3t beyond Lake Eva the range closed round the head of the valley, one mountain carrying a beautiful icefield. This range held southward, and formed the western wall of the valley till, at a point almost due west, we lost it, owing to nearer hills coming between. However, there was no room for doubt as to the identity of the valley : ft could only be the Camlet, draining into Brad»ha\r Sound ; and that soft blue haze beyond its western watershed will probably be found to be an arm of the sound. Certain it is that the river that drains all this extent of country must be of considerable size, and it is "uuthinkablo" that such a river could -enter the sea without being marked on the charts. This shut 3it down to the Camlet ; and, moreover, our bearings agree with this view. - We - w«uld have liked to pick out the Awe Burn saddle (if there be one), but could not locate it ; it will probably lie considerably farther to the south than we could see. It still, therefore, remains to be proved whether the shortest route from Manapouri to Bradshaw Sound may not lie through the Awe Burn, so here is a chance for some aspirant to solve the

When other remedies fail, try TUSSICUIiA. However bad your cold, maybe 4ft nih euro you*

problem. About a week from the lake shou!d be enough — that is, if the weather can be arranged beforehand. But to proceed. Having got an idea of "our surroundings and noted the chief points of interest from a geographical and scenic point of view, we set to work to take our bearings as accurately as possible and enter them, exposed a few plates, and commenced to return to camp. We noticed here evidences of rabbits in considerable numbers, though in the Freeman and Omaki they were almost obiant I 1 ; seemed in this case as if they had worked along the watershed and kept to the tussocky country. We took the same track dowa as we had come, though further inspection showed wnat might easily prove a better one. That night it rained with a steady drip, drip, and all next day; snowed all next night and following day, and we were in fairyland. What a different scene from two days ago ! A white world of surpassing beauty, which, much as we regretted its exist'-nce, we could not but admire. But those precious days of ours were slipping away all unused. On the third afternoon we struck camp and started down stream, rain notwithstanding. What a different spectacle the Grand Staircase and the Omaki Fall presented ! There was no dry river-bed "this trip; and it was neces sary to frequently take to the bush ; but in due time we reached the junction with the Freeman, and. hoping for better weather to-morrow, pitched our tent at the foot of a huge birch troe. Here we got a roaring fire and had a hot tea — rather a variety in these three days of incessant wet. Be it here remarked that we displayed no "tender solicitude for the safety of the bush, which we had long ago learned the difficulty of burning ; and, moreover, we would have hailed the man who succeeded in doing 6O as a benefactor to his generation, but concludrd that the only hope of such a consummation was that it might some day rain kerosene. The Freeman could spare a few thousand acres of bush and etill have enough of that class of scenery to satisfy the most exacting. Her© is ou» apot where regulations re lighting fires in State forests require no inspectors to see to their enforcement.

Next morning we set out up the Freeman proper, and had a not altogether enjoyable time. The bush was dripping, and we were soaked through before we had gone far ; but time pressed, and we pushed on. The fall from Freeman Lake was showing to splendid advantage, the black reck over which it descends throwing into stronger relief, the whiteness of the fall itself. This fall, which has already been described, is to be known to future tourists as the Ranfurly, -and in years to come will be a centre of attraction even among the majestic scenes of the Freen^an. The lake just above was dark and sombre-looking, owing to the wet, foggy day, but it was beautiful in spite of that. At some recent date it has been much larger, but a fall-out has occurred at its outlet, allowing the water to lower considerably, and leaving a stretch of peaty moss at its upper end, with tarns or lakelets Ivere and there among it ; despite which fact. Freeman Lake remains one of the most picturesque and- ideal spots it has been our lot to see. The Telenvent of majesty is not lacking in its surroundings. For instance, close on the side of it -rises a peak almost perpendicular and probably well over 5000 ft high,- much resembling Balloon Peak on M'Kinnon's Pass. Up the valley winds a serpentine avenue of birch trees, with the sixeani flowing between^ which a short distance from the lake is joined by a noixy rushing affluent almost entirely snowfed — a long series of dancing falls. — and which we named the Waihuku. This drains the high mountains to the> w«-st — the main divide. Bracken's description suits it to perfection : Dashing: 3pla°hing. streaming, teeming, I am the child of the sun ard the snow,

Fallmg, falling, ocean is calling,

Rolling along to its bo_om I go. Following the main valley northwaid, the birches on the river-bank get fewer :i: i] more stunted, until half a mile up they ceaee altogether; and climbing a low ridge, to Btivo following the stream round it, we look down on Lake Minerva — beautiful, but cold and chaste-looking. Farther on the valley turns westward a«d ends in the pass of three years ago, with Lake Tauraki Ijing on the top of it. This lake ia the counterpart of Lake Harris, on the Routeburn Saddle ; while on our left rises a most imposing peak, which we believe to be about 6000 ft, guarding the pass on the south side, while the north side across this little lake was similarly sentinelled. Just beyend this the range turned eastward, beginning with the saddle mentioned 1 earlier, its east side also guarded by a peak. These thre» peeks guarding the two passes we named Mounts Kidd, Baird, aoid Fowler. Let not the reader cavil at this : we had use<d all the puitablo Maori names we knew, and after that adopted the universal custom of explorers and left our own names on the map ; find still the ncit comer will find plenty to christen. On this occasion the fates were unkind, and the peaks were shrouded in showers of driving misty rain, which* drenched us again, while- a biting cold wind completed our misery. To take bearings from this pass would have been impossible, and further progress equally so ; but down the valley, when it was somewhat clearer, we climbed an island rock — one of those obstructions that tho giant navvies who scooped out the valley ages ago failed to clear away — to a considerable height, and, first taking Spire Peak, got our bearings as mist and rain permitted. Having accomplished this, we built a cairn on top at the spot ; then, cold .and wet, started down for the camp. In spite of the cold we could not pass the lake and fall without exposing a few plates, and then, packing up our instruments and eating a cold snack, we ma do no stop till Junction Camp was reached. This practically ended the trip~ and we made our way to Manapouri next day with lighter swags than we came up with ; but the rain had raised the-river, and we made less headway than before. We had arranged with Captain Dore to wait till 3 p.m. that day, and if we did not appear to leave us a boat ; but we reached the lake an hour before the appointed time, to find the steamer gone, and we had to pull home, and after some delay, to allow the* wind to go down, readied Lake View Houso iv the small hours.

-CONCLUSION.

A few observations regarding the future of this valley may not be out of place. From a sccmc point of \iew I know of nothing before it. although I am fairly acquainted with all tho important tourist routes from Wanaka southward. It most resembles the Routeburn, and the view into the Camlet is not unlike th.n into tbo Hollyford, only nearer and with more variety, but witft teases satenk ftt «oo J*ak».

Then its distance altogether is not great — say, 10 miles to the pass. I spy "the" pass advisedly; for, although we climbed theOmaki Saddle, and that of the Gihnour Burn can also be done, yet a pass that is under ice the most of the summer i 3 no manner of use except for explorers. Tourists require an easy grade, such as the pass from the head of the Freeman to the Camlet presents. Fortunately this is the most interesting of the valleys, though the Omaki Fall and the Grand Staircase are worth a visit, as is the Coster Fall, on the Gilmour Burn. It is not an unreasonable prophecy that in the lifetime of many of us there will be a regular coach road up the Freeman — or oveu an electric railway — and a hotel about Lake Freeman; — all in the good time coming. Meantime, in its day of small things, we have asked the Tourist Department to have a hut built at the lake at the mouth of the Freeman, a track cut to Lake Freeman, and hut (or even a well-pitched tent) at the Omaki Junction. This would open this page of Nature to the more enterprising of tourists. To this camp would be an easy day's walk, to cither pass and back to camp another, and back to Manapouri the third. In timo to come this is almost certain to become a through track to the sound, and more than probable also to Te Anau, which for some years will be still moro useful. To those who have a fancy for this sort of work there is plenty yet to do. No one has been through the Camlet to the tea; and who knows what wonders may await the explorer. The Taiaiie may be found in numbers, or that historical tribe of Maoris be found dining off f 1 eshly-killed moa in these mountain fastnesses. The taniwha, scared ay/ay from the mountains of Mdford by Donald Sutherland, may have taken shelter in the Camlet, as affording temporary safety from the übiquitous white man. There is not room for another Manapourj, but there may be a Niagara or a Sutherland Fall. Those who are interested may shortly inspect the map which wa have handed to the Survey Department, and which while only a sketch of the locality, will be found approximately correct. E?P ' Ori "? ls at any time S6Vera l removes from a garden party, yet to those who have an eye for the beautiful, who apnreciate th« magnitude of Nature in her wilder moods there is enjoyment and health in treadin* the wilds of Fiordland.