ROADS OF THE WEST

Otago Witness, Issue 3337, 27 February 1918, Page 37

ROADS OF THE WEST

THE VALLEY OF CARDRONA. A JOURNEY THAT ENDS TOO SOON. By Will Law son. The motor service cars from Queenstown in ; 'the south, and Fairlie and Mount Cook in the north, meet at the Lindis. And in the morning, after the luggage has been transferred, the cars and their drivers are ready to return over the roads which they travelled yesterday. On the southward run, the road still follows the Lindis Gorge. It is a narrow, steep gorge here, with the river still divided by the wing-dams in many places, and the old water-races still winding their well-graded ways along the bare hillsides But after a few miles have been traversed the road swerves to the right, climbing steadily, and presently sweeps out upon Tarras Downs. These are wide, undulating areas, composed chiefly of land that is under cultivation. As the road runs on the land improves, till, at the old Tarras Downs homestead, it is rich, black soil. The road here has many windings and dips and rises, and from the crest of the downs, after the first stiff' pull up from the Lindis, some wonderful landscape views are to be had. In the far distance on the left is the Omarama Range, the dividing mountains between the west country and Oamaru. Right along that portion of the range whioh can be seen, a greyish-white streak runs at an elevation several hundred feet below tho crests. It looks like dirty snow, and gleams here and there like ice. It is a vein of mica, miles long, and has an interest to the traveller because he will see more evidence of this mica formation ere the day s ride is over. Away to the southward, stand ing clear-cut against the blue morning skies, three sharp peaks stand out. They mark the entrance to the Kawarau Gorge, many miles away, at the place" where man has challenged the river by hurling across its Btream two mightv monoliths. On the 1 arras Downs, however, there is no quarrel between man and Nature. It is a sunny, peaceful, prosperous place with the whin of the reapers coming across the fields in a lazy drone of sound. Near the old home stead, a fine view of mountains and plains is seen to the right, with the Clutha River a course shown by the contours of the Jand. Mount Aspiring's crest is hidden by cloud. The river itself runs in a deep bed. and it cannot he seen from afar. The service car swings gently and -swiftly down to a wide level road, which cuts through a long avenue of poplars and willows and turns to the right to the schoolhouse and the post office of Tarras Downs. After "the mails, the outward and the inward, have been exchanged, the car goes on by a tree-shaded way that, would lead us a long way astray if we followed it to the Lindis crossing, in fact, near where that river joins the Clutha. The way to Pembroke turns to the right;—all through, on this trip south the direction to the motorist is "Keep to the right." But we are coming to a land of many roads, a different country from the lone territory we crossed yesterday. Across the river there is a road visible on the hillside, the coach road from Cromwell to Hawea and Wanaka (Pembroke) The country opens out before us in a wide terrace with the Alps in the distance. Across the 'river, close at hand, is a pretty, .treesheltered hamlet, Queensberry it is called. More signs of gold fossicking are met with. Then the road winds on-to a bare, desolatelooking tract, with enormous stones standing out at frequent intervals. They are the remains of a by-gone glacier, which carved these flats to their present shape m its slow movement across the face of the earth. An old coach road to the Lindis, abandoned because of the driving sand, shapes itself out of the feature-flats and a little further on the ruins of an old coachinff hotel, half-burned and mournful stands out Here we get a clear view of Aspiring 9975 ft high. A little further yet, and the first glimpse of the Clutha, rushing in blue stream between yellow banks, is obtained. Its blue is not ns vivid as that of the Oha/u, but it is a bigger and a faster river. There are few rivers in the world which in anv given time pour more fresh water into the sea. Our driver points out TAiggate Flat and Luggato flour mill, and the road to the Luggate bridge—all to the left. Our road turns to the right, as usual, and up a steep hill on to Hawea Flat. The bridge road would take us to Pembroke, but there is a thrill in crossing the swift CUitha on the punt, and this road we are following takes us to the ferry. The way along the flats leads to Hawea Lake, a large and splendid body of water. For once we turn to the left, down Stony Gully, whioh is true to name, to the level of the river bank. Men have been gold fossicking here, too, in days gone by. The Hawea River joins the Clutha at Albertown, where the ferries are, for there are two of these craft —one on the road between Pembroke and Maungawera and the other on the road we are on. Between tlie two ferrien the Cardrona River pours its historic waters into the Clutha, too. and the combined stream rushes past like a mill race at about 15 miles an hour. How the double-builed punt is to cross it is a question which the driver answers with a smilling word: " Easy t The .river does it."

Two boats, about the size of lifeboats carry the punt The oar moves clown a nicely-graded gangway on to the punt. A silent man is the steersman. Across the river at a fair height a strong steel wire stretches. A stout two-wheelen pulley and a steel rope connect punt's amidships with the hawser. When" all are on board the stcorsman pulls the tiller lines, the torrent of the river foams over the rudders, and the boats cant their hows toward Albcrtown, where we want to he. As the hulls turn their sides to the current it pushes them away, the steel ropes and pulleys hold the boats from eoing downstream, and the result is that they move athwart the current. Near the landing, however, it looks as though the punt will touch too far down. "How do you brine? her up-stream?" a curious passenger asked. Tiie silent, steersman picked up a tiller rope and pulled it. The boats headed straight up-stream. The spring of the hawser and the way on the boats carried them crontly into the landing bay, and the car rolled slowly over the gangway and up the bank. The river did it. and did it. well, bat that steersman must know something, too, to judge so accurately. Orossiuer the Chitha brings the traveller hito Vincent County and the C:\rdrona Valley. Just a few nrles away is Lako Wanaka, with Pembroke on its soutfrrn shores. Mount Iron stands, a bold sentinel

by the road, an ironstone mass that has weathered ceons of time and time's helpers. When the dwellers in Pembroke, by the lake, desire to look out upon a wide world they tramp tho short distance to Mount Iron, and from its hoary orest view the rivers and lakes and mountains, and see the works and the ruins of works that man haa accomplished in these stern lands. For 26 miles in the valley of the Cardrona the old mining works are met with, and it is a striking commentary on human endeavour that to-day some of the water-races that were made to help in the searching and winning of gold are being renovated and used to carry water to fruit farms. This is the new industry, and it bids well to become more permanent and profitable eventually than the one which first brought men t 9 tho inlands of Otago. The entry into Pembroke from the north is almost dramatic. The road suddenly merges into a street and dips over a crest, and there are the blue waters of Lake Wanaka, with willows growing in the sandy beaches, and the heather-coloured hills reaching away on either shore. Quite close at hand there are homesteads, and very far away there is Mount Aspiring again. Altogether a glorious ending to a morning's drive I If the dreams of the pioneers had come true, when the. service cars swing away from the Wanaka Hotel, skirt the lake, and rush along the road to Cardrona, they would be heading for a large and prosperous city. But alas ! they were only dreams after all, and Cardrona is to-day a mere ghost of its former self. To and fro across the shallow river-bed the car pulls, with the strength of a strong man moving in sand. No less than 28 times is the river crossed; and the way is ever upward, on an easy grade, till nearly- the end of the ascent, up to the summit of the Crown Range, 4000 ft above sea level. Between Pembroke and Cardrona there is a huge plantation called the Lake County Nursery- That is what it was in the beginning. There were to be grown the trees which would make the valley of the Cardrona beautiful, and shelter the homes of the people from the storms. But there are few homes t 6 shelter, or there were but few at the time when the trees were ready for transplanting. To-day the nursery is a dense forest of tall English trees. And a few miles along the road two poplars stand forlornly in the river-bed, as though they had wandered from the nursery. They are called "The' Two Prospectors," and they have been there a very long time. Presently we dome to an abandopiedi dredge, some distanco further on there is another one, called La Franchi's dredge, after a man who made money in the Cardrona. And by and by we come to Cardrona City itself. First there is a cemetery, a very old cemetery, on the hillside. In the river-bed opposite are some old Chinese working's. All the old workings have stories; often they are thrilling stories. This is the case with the workings directly opposite the Cardrona Hotel. That is the only hotel "now. There was another in comparatively recent years, La Franchi's Hotel, but it was burned down. There is a pretty church among the trees at Cardrona and a few very oldfashioned cottages, and some happy children, who told us they never had been to Pembroke or Queenstown even. They spoke of Dunedin as a city out of a fairy tale. They raced" after the car for half a mile, till we stopped to deliver parcels at their home, one of a group of tree-embowered cottages, with gay gardens. It was a contrast to gaze on the flowers and then to look out at the dreary hills and at the ruins of the stone buildings of old Cardrona. What a brave effort manldnd made here _ to drive the desert from their doors and give the valley beauty I Even now it is a quaint and quiet place to stay an hour for afternoon tea and to talk about the old times. And afterwards, to push on up the valley and over the Crown Range to Arrowtown and Queenstown. Some distance from the top of the hill a road branches off to the right. It loads to a coal-mine, two miles away in the hills.. Tho coal that is won is a soft black lignite It is taken to Arrowtown and Queenetown in huge ten-horse wagons, over the Crown Range. By' the time the hill-top is in sight the water in the radiator of the service car is noarly boiling, and the low gear roars with the strain of the pull. A mile back we had passed a stone hut, still intact as regards its outer walls, but very old Someone jumped out to photograph it, and the driver said: "It's worth snapping. The last Chin.i man of the Cardrona lived there and hanged himself there." Altogether we were in a mood to think seriously about life, as we covered the lost mile of the climb. Nearer the panting car drew to the saddle, a pass between steep si opes. Now the crest is reached, a little further and one of the steep elopes falls away, it seems, into an abyss. We look down, down, as an air-pilot must look down into the valley three thousand feet below, where the Kawarau River rushes along and the road to Cromwell goes. The river is a gleaming, twisting thing, the road is a ribbon, and the settlement at the Gibbston coal mines, is spread out far, far below us. Up the course of the. Kawarau the eye moves to Wakatipu and the mountains and. the terrace lands. The driver has stopped his oar, to give us time to take it in. But we might stay for hours and gaze and gaze and still not be satisfied, so we move on, down the strip of steep road that is carved out of tho hillside. A tricky road this, for a stranger to travel. Little wonder that traffic is forbidden after nightfall. But it is safe enough in daylight, and the almost dizzy feeling experienced at the first view of this most astonishing, delightful panorama soon passes. After descending about a thousand feet, the road runs level till tho zig-rag is reached. This is a fine engineering feat, which carries the road up a steop hill face for 500 feet, all in a small superficial area of the hillside, the length of the road being one and a-quartcr miles. From the foot of the zig-zag the way goes by lovely tree-planted roads, through farm lands on the Crown Terrace to Arrowtown, a mining town which has advanced with the district, and is now a small agricultural oentre." Its long main street follows the curve of tho range, at the foot of which Arrowtown was built. Most of the houses are of t an old pattern, and there is a hotel with a garden under its verandah, all the plants, even the climbing roses, growing in tubs. It had been a hot day in Ai-rowtown, and they were hosing the streets to coo] the town. Up a' steep hill, still in tho town boundary, we passed out and away by shaded roads for Arthur's Point, at tho Shotover, where a dizzy bridge was crossed, and then to Queenstown, on a good road, from which could be seen the course of the Kawarau below, flowing through silver sands—tho

sands that have been washed and washed again for gold, and still carry gold, men 6ay. In the glow of a perfect evening Queenstown is reached, as the steamer from Kingston comes round the promontory and swings into her berth in the quiet, gleaming bay. This is the end' of the overland journey. We have done, for the time, with the busy service cars and their cheerful drivers. It seems a long time since we set out. Yet the end comes too soon, even though the ending is in Queenstown, with her hosts of hills and mountain masses, and endless vistas and water views.