A Visit to the Greenstone Country.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, 1 October 1904, Page 45

A Visit to the Greenstone Country.

By CHARLES HEAPHY.

The following narrative was published in Chapman's New Zealand Magazine in 1862. Its exceeding interest is our apology for reprinting. It will be observed that the curious cave described as having been visited by W. Townson in his Fox River tour was also visited and utilised by Messrs. Brunner and Heaphy.

Part I

(g^gjjE WAI POENAMU, or the Jplf^a wa^ er °^ the U'reenstone, ©Valuv] * s a name written in the C^Cr °^ cnai 'ts against a lake )/d|Bs4 in the Middle Island. Cook 'n?TYfc ca^ s tne wn °le island >^aJ) 4 " Tovai Poenamu." (ft). ' The words are corrup(p*;: tions of "Te Wahe," or \&-- the place of the poenamu. To explore this country Messrs Brunner and Heaphy left Nelson on the ISth March^ 1846, purposing- to follow the western coast on foot. In the previous summer they had been stopped, when on an inland track, by the mountainous and wooded country of the gorges of the Buller river, in latitude 41 degrees 50 minutes.

The course now lay from Massacre Bay, past Rocky Point, and the place marked on the chart as the '' 5 fingers." On leaving the Aorere river, in Massacre Bay, each traveller carried a weight of Sslbs of provisions and instruments, the former consisting of 401b s flour, lOlbs sugar, lib chocolate, with 81b s- powder and shot, the weight being made up with spare boots, blanket, book sextant and compass, with a few presents for any natives that might be fallen in with.

By the difficult coast track at Rocky Point, and past the old sealing haunt at Toropuhi, only three miles a day could be made with the

heavy loads and the rock-climbing. Laroe fragments of granite, from ten to sixty feet in diameter, composed what represented the beach : and, at low water, amongst these, and between them and the surf, the path lay.

Inland, high granite ranges, for-est-covered, blocked up all passage save where some old war path had been cut to avoid a jutting point which the tide beat against, and where it was necessary to ascend some 000 feet and keep the hill side for a mile or more : the descent generally being by the bed of a torrent, or by a supple-jack rope over the cliff.

The »reat disadvantages of a coast route, when there are no natives, is that all the rivers have to be crossed where they are widest, at their junction with the sea. At the Awaruatu, Raramea, and Mo-kihi-nui, rafts had to be made. The most buoyant raft is made of korari, or the dry flower stalk of the flax, which is made into bundles ten or twelve feet lone, and as thick as a man's body. The bundles are lashed together into a boat-shared raft about 24 feet long and 4-J- feet wide, tapered towards the ends. Paddles have to be cut, and with a weight of 5001bs or GOOlbs, a river of half a mile broad may be conveniently crossed. With a greater distance the material becomes satur-

ated and the raft loses its buoyancy.

With the exception of the Wakapoai and Karamea valleys, each comprising perhaps 40,(100 acres of good land, without a harbour, the whole country, from Cape Farewell to the delta of the Buller river at Cape Foul weather, consists of alternate granite and limestone mountains, with their sides washed by the sea. At the mouth of the Buller is a triangular flat of about C>o,ooo acres, composed of the debris of the inland valleys, brought out by the river, which lias scarped them into terrace shapes like the shelves or " parallel roads v% of Lochaber.

The Buller is a noble river, smooth, and upwards of 400 yards broad. Here a small canoe, minus one end, was found, and the lonu 1 and tedious construction of a raft obviated. A lump of clay, carefully renovated during the passage, filled up the end, and the river was crossed safely. Beyond the river a larye pine forest had been submerged by the lowering of the coast, and a succession of huge trunks stand out on the sands at low water mark.

At Tauranga beach, penguins and wekas, or wood hens, were in abundance. After one moonlight night's hunting, with a small Scotch terrier dog, the game list stood thus : —8 penguins, 23 woodhens, together with 2 bull-trouts and 1 eel.

On crossing the low ridge of Cape Foulweather, the coast for nearly 150 miles becomes visible. The winter had set in — it was the 3rd of May — and the mountains within six miles of us, and far away to Cascade Point, were clothed with snow two-thirds down ; and on the ground about us unmelted hail lay during the whole day. Far away to the S.S.W. the glaciers of the Southern Alps of Cook formed the most distant point, all that was not snow-covered being below the water horizon ; while out beyond these, looking like a detached iceberg, was the summit of Mount Cook, 13,300 feet high.

The Buller river has at various

periods had different outlets on the low triangle of land near Cape Foulweather, and the soil, composed entirely of alluvium and decayed vegetation from the dense forest which everywhere covers it, is of $>reat richness. The entrance of the Buller is, for a bar harbour, tolerably free from breakers, a smoothness which it owes to the projection of the adjacent cape, and cluster of rocks called the Three Steeples, or, by the sealers, the " Black Reef." Small coasting vessels will one day frequent this haven, and a site for a prosperous settlement exists on the level fiat of the cape, which may comprise about 70,000 acres.

The " Black Eeef " was, about forty years since, a <jreat resort of sealers. In its cluster of islets the sealing boat could nearly always find a " lee " from the heavy westerly swell, and the rocks swarmed with the fur seal. Even on the beach at Tauranya, abreast of the reef, the sealers, suddenly landing" at low water, have intercepted a school " of seals, and knocked them on the snout, or lanced them as they made their way clumsily down towards the sea. From Dusky Bay and Milford Haven up to Toropuhi, or Rocky Point, the sealers, with a hardihood and contempt of dancer which even in whaling finds no parallel, visited every rock and reef on a coast that is iron bound alike to canoe and sailing 1 vessel.*

Provisions now became scarce : for ten days the ration of flour had been one tablespoonful each, and that was used as thickening for soup, made from any bird that mig-ht be snared. The surf was too hieh to admit of fishing, and mussels, of which there were in some

* The dangerous character of this coast, and the absence of harbours, deterred Captains Stokes and Drury, of the Nautical Survey, from landing. Captain Drary viewed the coast line between Bold Head and Cape Farewell only from the masthead. In the Admiralty chart of the Middle Island this coast is laid down from Messrs. Brunner and He&phy's survey. Latterly, however, the Nelson settlers have pushed into this country, and Mr. Julius Haast last year published an interesting account of his examination of the locality. — Editor.

places abundance, caused dysentery. The sea-anemone or " toretore " was more wholesome, being rather gelatinous, but, being very salt and gritty, was not palatable. The mamaku (cyathea medullaris) where it could be found, gave a fair vegetable esculent, and we frequently carried large junks of this as provisions for two or three days in

advance

After the triangular flat of Cape Foulweather was passed, and at the spot marked on the old charts as the " Five Fingers," the mountains again came abruptly down to the sea, and the travelling was again slow and difficult. Progress could only be made at dead low water :

and in the short winter days of May the journey so pursued was most tedious. Not unfreciuently two or three days would be lost in waiting for a flooded river to subside, or for the surf to go down at some jutting cliff that could not be avoided.

At Potikohu, in the conglomerate rock, is a remarkable cavern, having three entrances from opposite sides, and composed of a vault 140 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 25 feet hi^-h, with its various branches. In this cavern, on a gibbet, as a security against rats, we left— for our return journey— our reserve stock of 6 lbs. of flour and 2 lbs. of bacon. Our ration of one table spoonful of flour a day had been for thirteen days resigned, and during that period we had lived on snared birds and " marnaku." Our gun, too, was left here, with three charges of powder ; for several weeks it had been used with the main spring tied in with pack-thread, it having become unrivetted. The old boots were also left as a reserve, and we walked on awkwardly over the rocks in new water- tights.

At Potikohu we were 220 miles from Nelson, and 152 miles from the natives of Wanganui, the nearest point at which we could obtain provisions on our way back. Of the distance forward to the Greenstone Country we had but a vague idea,

supposing it to be about 80 or 100 miles. To take us this distance we had not an ounce of food, unless a small Scotch terrier dog miufht be regarded as sueh — it was in as lean condition as ourselves.

Difficult descents were again unavoidable, and a peculiar description of ledge walking on the slopes of the mountain, over the surf, became necessary, but we had Lj-rown used to such clambering. Both the eye and the foot become educated to such work with daily and almost hourly practice extended over a period of months.

So uninterrupted is the expanse of forest on this coast that over I*2o miles only one small spot presented itself where fern utcw, and its root could be obtained for food. Krom that place on our return we carried fern root for ten or twelve da vs.

The peculiar theological formation of granite and fossiliferous limestone in juxta-position, still continued, the limestone showing coal at No'awiakakiri and Irimawi. At neither of these localities, however, is there a harbour or shelter from the westerly swell and its neverceasir.LT surf.

On ti c IDth of May, on passing Maukiranui Point, we saw at a distance of 300 yards a small native village, and some women gathering; shell fish on the sands. A shout immediately arose, and the inhabitants poured out from their pah in wonder at our appearance.

As we approached them they drew up in single file, with their chief at the nearest end, and without saying a word presented — man, woman, and child — each a nose to be rubbed.

The village — Kararoa— was an outstation of the Greenstone community, and there were in it one man, two boys, seven women, and twelve children. Of these only the old man and woman had ever seen a white man — they remembered the sealers.

No enquiry as to our object in coming was made, and un il cooked food had been placed before us scarcely a word was spoken. Every face looked its astonishment, and

each article of our dress and equipment was examined with the minutest scrutiny. Then, after the three or four families had each furnished a mess of potatoes and dried whitebait—more by far than we could consume, famished as we were— then they asked us how we had passed the Taupare Kaka cliff, and descended the ladders at Temiko ; what food we had obtained on the way ; and how we forded the Karamea ; every question beinu' dictated by a feeling of interest rather than of inquisitiveness.

After resting two days at Kararoa, we a«'ain started for Tara makau, the chief settlement of the tribe, all the people of the village accompanying us. Near the IMokihinui river we had for many day* found pieces of Baltic deal and English oak, copper fastened, until it became- evident that some lar^e vessel had been wrecked somewhere in the vicinity ; at last, near Mautoria, we found the broken masts and main top of a ship that must have been of about 400 tons burden. On our way, now, the natives told us of the loss of this vessel. She had anchored near Cape Foulweather for water, and the captain had landed with some of the crew, when a heavy westerly o-ale prevented their return on board, and the short-handed vessel, in endeavouring to beat of the coast, was embayed and wrecked where we had seen her— some twenty-live miles from where the caotain was landed. The crew, thus divided, endeavoured by means o f a breastwork to defend themselves arai-st the natives, but after a few days had to surrender, when they were all killed and eaten, save two, of whom the captain was

one. These evaded the native pursuit, and without provisions and barefooted, walked — chiefly at night

—along the rocky coast that we had passed towards Cook's Straits, in the hope of reaching the whaling station at Cloudy Bay, 400 miles distant by the path. The west coast natives followed their footsteps as far as Cape Farewell in hope of capturing them, but were continually eluded. Passing Massacre Bay, the two fugitives actually reached Totara nui beach, round Separation Point, where the local natives surprised and killed them. Could they have told their tale, no narrative of toil, endurance, and courage could have exceeded theirs in melancholy interest.

The natives described bales of wool as having come ashore from the wreck ; she was probably a vessel from V an Dieman's Land on her w 7 av to England.*

We continued on, and passed the entrance of the Mauhera or Grey river, in lat. 42 decrees 2S. minutes. Here there is a fine valley, extend - inn' to the north-east, and connected with a splendid district for agriculture, bounded on the south by the Mount Cook ran^e, and on the east by the Southern Alps towards what is now the Canterbury district.

At Taramakau, eighteen miles from Kararoa, we came upon the chief settlement of the Ngaterarua, or Greenstone people, some forty souls in all, and every man, woman, and child indolently en«-ayed in sawing, g-rinclinq' or polish in o' "Teenstone. * The ship "Rifleman" left Hobarton about 1825, bound to England, and was never afterwards heard of.

(to be continued.)