Tapuaenuku Scenic Reserve

Forest and Bird, Issue 148, 1 May 1963, Page 26

Tapuaenuku Scenic Reserve

An area of 5,500 acres in the Inland Kaikoura Range has been established as the Tapuaenuku Scenic Reserve according to an announcement by the Minister of Lands (Hon. R. G. Gerard). It will comprise all the land above 6,500 ft. surrounding Tapuaenuku (9,465 ft. Mt. Alarm (9,400 ft. and Mitre Peak (8,600 ft. at the northern end of the range. The area is popular with mountaineers and trampers, particularly from Marlborough and Wellington, and reservation will give the public free right of access. The reserve has legal access from Blenheim through the Awatere valley and up the Hodder River. While the proposed reserve is mostly bare rock and scree it is interspersed with small mountain shrubs and odd patches of tussock. Reservation of the area has been made possible by the cooperation of local landowners, said Mr. Gerard. Part of the new reserve was previously vacant Crown land, some was included in pastoral licences, and the rest held under freehold title. The landowners have willingly made the land available, said the Minister. Mt. Tapuaenuku is the highest mountain in New. Zealand outside the Southern Alps and a winter ascent of it is not recorded until 1941. The precipitous peak of Mt. Alarm was not climbed until 1928.