N.Z. ALPS ARE HARD TO CLIMB.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 2

N.Z. ALPS ARE HARD TO CLIMB.

ENGLISHMAN MISSES COWBELLS AND HAY. During his visit to Mount Cook, Dr E. Markham Lee, the English pianist, composer, and author, missed the delicious smell of new-mown hay and of pine trees which he experienced on the European Alps, visited by him about twenty times. New Zealand's Alps are wild; but all the lower hills of the European Alps, he explained last evening, are richly cultivated. Three crops of hay usually are taken every year up to about 6000 feet, and pine trees grow up to a limit of about 8000 feet. On New Zealand’s Alps, he missed also the musical notes of cow-bells and goat-bells, which ring in the ears of climbers in the lower altitudes of the European Alps. As far as he can estimate, New Zealand’s Alps, although some thousands of feet lower than the European Alps, are harder lo climb owing to the fact that there seems to be little in the way of regular tracks, and to the absence of painted stones that are a feature of passes on the Tyrolese Mountains, red, blue or white marks indicating different directions. As a result, he states, climbers on New Zealand’s Alps must be careful where they wander. He was fortunate in seeing some remarkable views of Mount Cook. He saw mountain lilies, mountain daisies and the delicate little native bluebells. He saw the New Zealand eidelweiss, but not in flower, as at Mount Cook this season it is blooming later than usual. The weather on several occasions during Dr Lee’s visit'left something to be desired, but on most of the days there was a fair measure of sunshine. Although he did not have time to get into proper training to attempt the larger excursions, he engaged in a few scrambles on the lower glaciers.