TAPUAENUKU PEAK

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1921, Page 1

TAPUA ENUKU PEAK

INTERESTI NG HISTORICAL RECORD.

[by TEhEGItAFH —PER FJtESS ASSOCIATION]

WELLINGTON, Jan 12. In consequence of a visit of the Tarnrun Tramping Club from Wellington recently, some attention lias been devoted to tliis mountain, the highest peak in the Knikoura range. Most interesting of all the references is a letter from Mr T. Lindsa v Buick in to-day ‘‘Dominion,” in which he refers to the first ascent .a somewhat sensational effort b v Lieut. Governor Eyre and his Maori guides in November 1848, Mr Eyre while in charge of the province of New Munster, comprising Wellington and the Southern districts of New Zealand, I conceived the idea of making an overland journey through the mountainous country" of the South Island to the newly founded settlement of Canterbury. On the way he was attracted j by the prospects of climbing Mount ' Tap'uaenuku. ])c found the ascent very difficult and dangerous, but succeeded in reaching the summit on the second day, just as night was closing in. The wind was blowing a fierce gale the snow was drifting, and there was I every appearance of a storm. They had therefore barely time to take a hurried glance at the landscape around and make the best of their way downward to seek for some place to pass the night. They had not gone far in a zig-zag descent across a steep incline plane of frozen snow, before one of the Maoris

(Wiremu Hoeta) slipped and was hurried along downwards with rapidity for upwards of fifteen hundred feet, striking against and bounding over ledges of rock .which intersected and project-

ed across the frozen snow at intervals

of ‘2OO and 300 feet. Eyre himself had a terribly narrow escape. His foot slipped, and but for his presence of mind in striking an iron-shod pole he had with him into the snow, and lowerng his hands without a moment's hesitation to the base lie would have been

dashed to pieces likewise. As it was, ho managed to cling on for a. few moments and eventually regained his foothold. It was impossible to proceed further as night had closed in, and they were therefore obliged to lie down where they were upon a little ledge of rock, which just kept them from following their unfortunate companion. It was so narrow that without-stretched arms Mr Eyre could touch the brink. they passed the night in a state of mental torture that no words can adequately describe. At earliest dawn they commenced their descent cautiously, ail'd at last reached a point, where the could see the body of their unfortunate fellow traveller, though the v could not possibly reach it. The body had been projected under a huge ledge of frozen snow overhanging a small stream at the bottom of a ravine. The poor fellow was evidently quite dead ; indeed lie must have been stunned and killed long before he reached his last resting place by the continual striking against the ledges of .rock in his descent, from each of which a track of blood stained the frozen snow marking his course. Finding that they could not even have the melancholy satisfaction of recovering the body of their unfortunate fellow traveller, they made the. best of their way down the mountain. As the Maoris were utterly disheartened, Mr Eyre was reluctantly compelled to give up liis proposed trip across country to the Canterbury Settlement.