THE SOUTHERN LAKES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13291, 29 January 1914, Page 7

THE SOUTHERN LAKES.

A MOUNTAIN ROUTE

The special value of the route over the mountains from the head of Lake Wakatipu to Milford Sound, which tho Government is proposing to open up, will lie m its use as an alternative track to that by way of Te Anau and McKinnon's Pass. Summer holiday-makers visiting Milford by the overland route — the only convenient way oi seeing Milford since the ' Union Steam Ship Company discontinued the Sounds excursions — have to return ,the way they went and climb the pass twice. The new walking track will lead from a bay near the head of Wakatipu up thrqugh the Bnowy ranges tp Lake Bowden, a beautiful Alpine tarn, thenoe to the head of the Hoilyfanl river and down the valley of the Cleddau to Sutherland's, at the head of Milford.

The new track will not be nearly so easy a walk as tbe present route from Lake Te Anau up the Clinton Valley and acrpss the saddle which divides the Clinton from the Arthur Valley. The new way will take travellers to a much greater altitude, . and occasionally it may be blocked by snow even' during, tha tourist season. It will always he a much more rugged track than that by way pf Te Anau, but for ordinarily active popple it should be a delightful foot-pilgrimage, The great obstacle which so long prevented the discovery of a practicable route bp-fcweep Mil ford and Te Anau was the immensely high " and precipitous cliffs at the head of the Cleddau river, whioh flows into Freshwater Basin* below the Sheer-down Heights, at the head of the sound. More than one surveyor was baffled by these seemingly unolinihable walls of ice-smoothed rock, and William Quill, the daring explorer, who had saajed the precipices alongside the SutJierJand Falls, and discovered the lake from whicii they issue, met his death m 1891 when attempting to solve the mystery of the Cleddau' s source and penetrate the unknown ranges from the Milford side. Now a route has been found which will avoid the most formidable of these precipices, but the steep ascent into the mountfthva will always make the -journey ffom Milford io Wakatipu an arduous cUroh.

For the reason lust "mentioned it may be found, when the track is developed, that travellers making a round trip will be well advised to go from Wakatipu to Milford and Teturn by way of McKinnon's Pass and Te Anau. In a few years this will , be a, world-famous walk, and one all the more attractive because of its flavor of adventure. As the State owns the Wakatipu and Te Anau steamers, and will control both tracks, it should be able to establish a round excursion which will appeal to New Zealanders even more than to outsfde tourists, on account of the lessened expenses. At present it is only the few who can afford a trip to Milford Sound.