SKY-SCRAPERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 100, 21 January 1918, Page 6

SKY-SCRAPERS

MOUNTAINS OFJHE SOUTH COOK, SEFTON AND OTHERS i (By Will Lawson.) Mount Cook, whose Maori name is Aorangi, meaning tho Bright Light in the Sky, is ono of tho highest mountain peaks in the world. Its, fame as such, and of being a mountain which offers climbers ti fair field and few fa-vours-or disfavours-has given Mount Cook a world-wide reputation. JJUt, like, the prophet, the mountain, has hitherto found small honour in its own country, even though Amencaw, Englishmen, Australians, Frenchmen, Germans. Austrians, and people oi other nationalities have come across half a world to see Aorangi and her sister peaks, that form such an imposing, av/e-inspiring spectacle. But New Zealanden m * whole-apart fiom those enthusiasts who,have known and loved these mountains for longare now beginning to discover Mount Cook, and to realise that one need not be a mountaineer or a geologist or other specialist in mountains to enjoy the wonders and beauties of these pinnacles in the clouds. Since Mount Cook has been discovered it will only be necessary to add that it stands about 120 miles due west of Christolmrcli, not south. Owing to the formation of the country, however, the mountains are approached from Timaru, by tram and motor. Mount Cook is 12,349 feet above sealevel, and the ascent begins at Timan! • the train climbs 993 feet of the terrific altitude which terminates in the triple peaks of Cook'. The train does this deliberately; without haste, it trundles along through 39 miles ot beautiful farm lands, and arrives at Fairlie as the dusk is draping the smooth, round hills with purple and gray shadows. Even the stranger seems to .recognise that there is no possibility ot catching a glimpse of the distant snow kings until Fairlie has been left behind. Although Cook towers into the heavens to a height of over two miles, no very distant view of it can be had from the eastward, because ot the lesser ranges near at hand,' which baulk the seeking eye. But these ranges and ridges serve a purpose other than that ordained by Nature—they are the means of presenting to tho traveller to the mountains, a series of views of the country wifti dramatic suddenness. It is as though a stage-man-ager waved his hand, and lo I the curtain rose on a nobler and wider prospect. In actual fact, the motor throbs along towards each ridge, beyond which one longs to look. There is always a very human desire to look beyond every hill Nearer and nearer comes the saddle in the ridge through which tho road winds. AVith toiling engine the steep ascent is accomplished, ■> and then Tiie first of theso wonderful views occurs at Burke's Pass, after tho beautiful country between Fairlie and that point has been traversed. Burke's Pass opens upon the Mackenzie Plains. But there is no indication of this as the height is being climbed. Only when it is topped is the wonder of the thing made clear. There are sunlit, yellow and brown hills stretching away frum left and right, into the distance, and to l( a wider left and right, with great groups in the middle distance. On these hills are the dark shadows of clouds, and above the furthest hills a rong lino of misty cloud, which clings and hides tho mountains of the alps. "Through this gap you'll often get a sight of Cook," tho driver says. Through the gap that day, however, there was no sight of Cook to bo had; the mists hid "it. But there weTO compensations in the hills. Such wonderful tints and colours they showed. From some a veil of mist was just, lifting, and there was one chain of them whose colouring and softness, almost baffled description. As it is a custom, however, to speak of velvet lawns and silky leaves, it perhaps will be allowable to speak of those as chiffon hills—on ninon, maybe—these appear to bo the only words which describe their smooth, rounded proportions and delicate colours.

Then the road settled down to make a swift way to another ridge, and speculation began once more as to what lay beyond. It proved to be a fine view of bold, craggy penks, whoso bases melted into the distance behind the undulating plains, ibid the cresfc of Mount Cook showed for a little, space above the misty clouds. So high in tho heavens were the gleaming peaks nnd so cloudlike, it seemed impossible that they belonged to earth—yet so distinct, that there was no room for doubting. A protruding hill-shoulder jealously shut out the glimpse. The car sped on towards another ridg<?. Bevond it was Lake Tekapo.

When, one is intent upon seeing a mountain, a still wide lake might seem a poor substitute. But not when it is Tekapo. Its waters were a. delicate j turquoise blue, unbroken by shadows of cloud or of wind, and near at hand on the right was a very, green islet with a homo embowered in trees. Be- i yond was a rampart hill, and far ! away aaain more bold bluffs and easy hills'. Like n, huge jewel the lake was j held there. At its lower end, there j is a stone-towered suspension bridge i and a houso beyond. Beneath tins ! bridge and between stony banks formoil by a deep cleft in the land, the Te-! kapo River, fed by til?, !?-ke, thunders j down to join like streams from PuHki and Ohau lakes and form the Waitaki River. And we realise that these waters come from the snows en those ppsks so for away, that are a bright light in the sky. Pukaki. cno lion' .--id - W.f further on, across level plain*, k ilist such another snow b.lte. Bui- its ho p<l :s ri'rlifc against the nnse.s.of <!ie Bpow Kir.«s. and the roarinpr river from ThsTnan" Gln-sier fends it, so its waters hnve more of the silver of tho snows and less if the blue, of the skies. It too sends it? river, named PuVnki, tasin? and foaming between high hills. "And below the bri<k" iip.t the . homestead there is an island of won- ! derful beauty, green and golden with flowers and "trees and girt by tilver and white waters. Across, or rather over the length of Pukaki, like a castle in the skies that appears to wear white clouds on its turrets, Mount Cook stands, bold and inspiring. The white clouds of it are its white peaks. When one realises that many men and several women _ have stood on those peaks and seen, in the j sr.me sweep of vision, tho waters of the eastern and western seas, there is something very stirring in the thought. From Pukaki House tiio road skirts the shores of the lake, climbing over shoulders of hills that are neither chiffon nor ninon hills, but swausdown hills; again dropping to water level and swinging on and on. So near, the rock bases of the mountain groups appear, ye"t so far, really. Distances and heights aro misleading here. Twenty miles is as -a moment, a thousand feet a circumstiiiifie. On aifd on, and no sign of habitation aftor Birch Hill station is passed. At last, when the wildness of the bill, ice-bound in the upper slopes and hlack on the lower ones, becomes almost a threat, tho rod roof of the llennitago shows. It stands on a small plateau, nearly at the southern end of the Cook Range, where it runs down to man-level, from the clouds. On one hand is the Tasmnn valley, on the other the Hooker, with the Cook Rmijre between. From each valley branch off steep gullies and icefalls' and glaciers and immense mor-

aines—broken rock and ice of a mass and chaos appalling^ But there is nothing threatening in the prospect as seen from the terrace in front of the I-lermitagq. That is because We wo have the comforts and companionship of civilisation brought to the foot of the mountains. Everything one can reasonably desire is here. In fact, there is something almost incongruous and quite strange, to sit; in ilio well-appointed, well-filled dining-room, with the gas-lamps lighted and looking out at the enormous masses of tho mountains, which seem so close —Cook still with tho afterglow ablate on its peaks. It is so unlike anything that is seen in the usual round of nfe, and the giants with heads held high among the stars, look monstrous in the grey light. But it is wholly splendid. And, at night, to be in bed, looking out at tho snows of treacherous Sefton and to hear tho avalanches thundering, thundering, roaring down the slopes, while the echoes rumble up the long valley, and to hear the petrels, tho seabirds of the night, whose nests are_ in tho crags above, crying and crying as they wing away to their night fishinjr en the chores of Westland, only 25 miles away.