BY WILDERNESS WAYS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 122, 9 February 1918, Page 9

BY WILDERNESS WAYS

. $ „ THROUGH HISTORIC CENTRAL STAGE J , A THREE-HUNDRED MILE CAR SERVICE 03y. AYill Lawson.) i The early settlers of New j Zealand fn-ho plauned their country's', railway routes, were not dbsessed, as peoplo aowadays are prone to think they .were, with the idea of making the railways . follow the coast-lines. . In loth islands many of the sun-eyed lines struck boldly inland, and, though later influences caused the South Island lines to hug the coast to a great extent, the old map still shows jthese proposed inland routes. Usually 'a road exists there instead of the jtracks of steel. Tho coming of tho motor has increased the importance of 'these roads, wliich might .have been I'ailways, and engines with rubberityred wheels, instead of wheels with Steel flanges, rock and race along tho inland ways. ~.. •■•'.- An instance of this reversion to the .^original"intent is to be found in 'Central Canterbury and Otago. An old survey laid- out the railway route between Christchurch and Dunedin as &n inland line, sweeping away behind Geraldine, behind Fairhe, and across the Mackenzie Plain, and on through ■the diggings to Dunedin. Whatever treasons, such as icy conditions in winter or t.ho jealousv of the coast towns, prevented this lino from being built, |they did not hinder tho pioneersJn making a road, though those who made it never dreamed that engines as swift as those of tho railway, would one day travel,it. To-day that road is 'there still—3oo miles from end to end, ,eto3Vfflsdlur shrdl shrdl shrdlu shrdlurdl with branches running from it, and ends that fork like".the fingers of a man's hand.. The old coaches that took a week to journey from Queenstowii to jFairlie have gone; and mail motor-cars .traverse.it instead. These "service Cars," as they are'called, carry passengers, too, bo that even he who does not possess a car may travel the back country ways, and see the wonders of mountain and lake and river, and feel the thrill that the. signs of history. bring as he passes old camps and diggings. The road is open alike to private and service cars; tho driver knows the country he travels, as a': student knows, his i books! And as mile after mile unrolls, he tells what he has seen in that book. They a'ro ; unusual men, these mail-car. drivers—resourcoful, Vcool,- tireless, and blessed with a dry ,'humour, which often comes to those Svhose days are spent on tho roads. So 'that a two-days' run.becomes all too ■short, and the. ending seems abrupt, jn whichovcr direction the journey is ■undertaken,' there is a wealth of beauty ;at the outset and'a splendour at tho end. Mount Conk and the lakes in 'the north, Wakatipu and the view from the Crown Range in the south, with a chain of lesser charms of mountain, /lake, and river strung on the ribbon iSof road. From Falrlie On. 1 Since .the service-cars do not compete With the railways, they do not 'start, from Timaru. They await tho train, at Fairlic 38 miles away, through I an /undulating, cultivated, laud rich (with colours ranging from green to gold, and richer still in the world's wealth. Fairlis and The Hermitage are at the, extremities of tho fork at tho 'northern ond of the road, with Pukaki la't tho placo where tho merry-thoughts ijneet. Along these forks over Burk (Pass and Mackenzio Plain and by tho /beautiful lakes Tokapo and Pukaki is the, way to.Mount'Cook, a well-known \way. ' But tho wilderness road begins when the big tourist cars have been lief ft, behind, and tho sorvico car, like a seasoned sundowner,. with "Matilda lip" and a hundred and ono packages' felung carelessly about him,_ turns its ■back on tho milky waters of Lake Pukaki and pushes on over a broad, vol.Jow, 6unlit plain. The sense of openness and of distance is exhilarating, tho views of the far away, smooth-looking hills which would bo ca|lcd mountains elsewhere faro studies in colours and soft, pleasiing perspectives. Mount Cook, seen in jail its snowy glory, across the waters •;of Pukaki, was a vision of heavenly > splendour; this■ before, us is earthly Uoveliness, warm beneath wonderful ] skies. And tho road, going on and on, |is part of the picture; with all itshumjidrum details and air of high commerce, ■r'ifc is of the wilderness, after all a wiliVlorness which is being tamed. Hence (there were only homesteads at long in-' intervals. Now, the frequent farms by j-the way, new and shadeless, tell of the [portioning opt of the broad acres. Ben j'Ohau homesteads, far on the left, a 'shimmer of green benpath the bare jiGrampian Range, is the limit set to our ■vision in that direction., The preen is !tno green of shade trees, growing be-

side cool waters, for there is abundant water in this sunny treeless land. Every old homestead is well guarded by giant willows and poplars and spruce and' larch, brought across seas for this purpose in days gone by. But the- road goes on for the tinio boing, where there is no shade, and the car follows it. It is not very much of a road—it is not even a cart road, for there is no horse-track in the centre." It is the mail-car road, and just for a l : ttle while, i one wonders whether it will prove an interesting road after all. Looking at the brown hill of Roborough Downs, on the right and on tho yellow levels leading the eye to the left again, to Alden homestead and Grampian Hills homestead, it seems that it will prove'a sun-scorched rido south. Where are the fivers, the lakes? The warm breeze singing past brings the welcome of the back country, aii _ open gateway, whore an empty kennel tells of an absent boundary doo; seems to bid ns "como right in." From a quiet stream called Twizle Creek some Paradise duck splash and rise on easy wings, unafraid and curious. And then wo come to tho Oliau River. Magic Blue of the Ohau. Oha'u River is a shouted challenge to the artist's brush. Its stream is blue—vivid blue, richer than royal, more brilliant than indigo. It flows between yellow banks, beneath willows and a brown, iron bridge! Every stone of tho river-bottom can be seen, and the water is as cold as ice, for it comes from Lake Ohau, which has its being from the ice-fields of tho Alps. Ohau is the only lake, in tlieso mountains ,that has bushed shores. The beauty of Ohau is tho beauty of a gowned lady in a cluster of handsome, half-clad savages. Past Benmore homestead, with its groves of English trees and' creeping English roses and flowing fords through which the wheels splash, the road winds away to Ohau, to the source of that blue river which is, the boundary in man's reckoning between Canterbury and Otago, butin Nature's eyes is a living jewel flowing between banks of gold. The mail-carß do not go to Ohau—not yet. /They will go soon, when a hostel has been built and tho tracks opened, across the Sealey Range, to The Hermitage. For the present there is enough to do to get to the hamlet of the unical Omarama, in time for the midday meal. The iroajd wanders through the old 6hcep yards of Bcii* more : and on by the side of a clear, brown stream which falls at length into the rapid-running torrent of tho Ahuriri River. We see the Ahunri first from the height of a long, wooden bridge. It will bo many hours ero we say farewell to tho same stream, for the way to tho Lindis is along the Ahuriri, right back 'far past Omaramaj which is 30 miles from Pukaki, and stands at tho junction of the road from Kurow. •