ARTHUR’S PASS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 May 1924, Page 1

ARTHUR’S PASS.

A NEW PLAYGROUND FOR CHRISTCHURCH.

(By 11. E. Baughan, written for the

‘Lyttelton Times.”)

Homeward bound on Good Friday evening, some of us found our tramcars invaded near the railway station by happy looking folk with a general fresh-air look about them, and large hunches of ferns in their arms. Those ferns were unmistakahle; and I was so lucky as to gain for a neighbour a lass distinguished not only by a fine sheaf of them, but also by a handker-chief-full of smaller green treasures. It was they that gave the sign—I was sure of them at once, and consequently sure of her. “Arthur’s Pass “ 1 asked, my heart glowing within me. "Oh, yes, Arthur’s Pass!” cried she eagerly, her heart glowing out through her eyes ; and then we went on glowing together in joyous talk for the rest of cur ride; and I came home glowing still. Arthur's Pass—the very name is full of magic, the memories it evokes are those of mountain glory; and to realise that that magic and that glory have now been brought within the reach of us who have no time or money for real long mountaineering—liov.- it lines seem to .-promt and increase them. I hope the authorities will run many more such excursion-; I am certain it would pay—in money, and in joy, and ways more .subtle. Mountains are very good for mortals.

My little neighbour had taken the three hours’ walk over the Pass to ward- Olira, and I believe that is reuliy tli* best wav to take it. not only heeatt-e the climb is far shorter and les- -teen than from the Olira side, hut because the view i- holler. You need to walk it, not in go through by cycle or motor, if you want to get the full good of it : and, indeed, one may unhesitatingly go a great deal further than that, and mainlain what every other lover ot the Pass will upbold— namely, that the first walk through will only give one a first acquaintance with it. and the more you give it, the more delight it will give you. How ! wish -ome enterprising si mi I would start a mude-l mountain house for the reception of simple mountain lovers, who cannot claim to he alpinists, and who do not want a fashion resort near the Pass itself. As I climbed, not long since, up the well-graded road lioni the railway, between the deluiiuis ranks of sapling “birches" and banks of moss and fern, and came to the now deserted roadman's hut. it seemed to me that that was the very spot, and that a simple main building for kitchen and living-room there, with wliares for bedrooms scattered among the hi relies, would not fail of giving all the accommodation needed, and could not fail of attracting visitors the year round.

For, only a little way above it. you come out i.l the birch-bush on to the open Pa-s. and find yoiirsell right in the heart of the mountains. What is the altitude:' Only somewhere between three and four thousand feet; but that i- enough, here in New Zealand, to give a- what in Switzerland you seein t i get oniv at some six thousand feet or so -the divine mouu tain air. the diviner mountain light, the mountain left to lieait and spirit that i, more Godlike yet. Ihe Pass is i’l itself a very simple plaie. open, h.tt'o- i'.i-t a long straight -addle, -ome three mile- long, between I'toiin tain, Hi.it draw away from it in long slopes, of bush here, ol tussock and -hinglc-slide there. unite ol them terrilieallv majestic, none even snowcapped in summer. It has nothing <>: the dranmiie suddenness o! the ( upland Pass, that separates Westland from Canterbury by a ridge so narrow that when you -iui.n it. you can dangle Olio fool ill one province and the other in another. Nor can it vie fin' a moment in grandeur with M'Kinnan’s Pa-s on the Milford Track, with the Clin tan Valley three thousand feci sheer down on the one -bio and tlnArt lute ('alley, blue with bush amt distance, three tbou-aud feet slice: down on lb" other. Xcverthcles:-. Arthur's Pass i- itself, and that is something good and glorious enough.

What is its chief attraelinii 1- Differclit people, I daresay, would tiive quite different answers. Home mi"!it sav its crystal creeks, some its llowers. some its atmosphere. Two nl the creeks yon meet at once, Us you leave lh . liirelies lichind the l Twin Creeks, cpiite near each other, with the l load runtime thronoh them, and only step pine stones for the walker to cross on. •One lady fell in," conlided the lass o| Hood Friday. “11111 she soon walked herself dry attain. ’’ M.y symaptliy to I he hedv—for how i>i toll have I nearly fallen in myself! I he water nl these creeks is real mountain water, live, rusliiii!' crystal, sparkitio and siii“iii“, aid the waierfe.il that foods the first of them may he seen far up. very white in the the hillside. The space* helween end all about them istrewn with jtreat boulder-. and ahuiidaiil Iv crown with cilsiiinlls ol sMow-erass. streamine like the hair of a myriad Struwelpetors, and with all the blessed shrubs that (trow only at this altitude —“ross-t rce. willi its slender wands of itreen. t v.io'ay tan-h's of coprosoma, olcarias cd various kinds—and with ih.e “rent j'l'oen cups of luov.ntaiii-lily leaves, the silver

rosettes of mountain daisy leaves, the precisely-patterned leaves of angelica, the rich ones of ourisia, and, in their season, with the flowers of nil these. "Lily Flat.” indeed, is, I believe, the local name for this bit of the Pass, and in blossomtime a lovely sight it must he. But at any time, bow it shines in its brave attire of silver, russet, myrtle-green, olive-green, sunshot green and silver again. For there is not a leaf, not a blade, of these sttb-Alpino plants that does not love the light so much that it reflects it eagerly, and sends it out into the air again front a million glossy, glancing surfaces and points. The earth up here seems all a-thrill with radiance; the air, clear, pure, and (hin, shines too; so do the stones and Imulders; so do the mountainsides and mountain crests; so does the sky. On the dullest day or in actual rain, still there is more light here than in the valleys, and I have seen the rain-drops fall in little balls of silver down through the surface ol the creeks, and the coprosoma gleaming with them as with diamonds, when there was not anywhere the smallest rttv of sun.

But let ns get on. Not far from the Twin Creeks, we come to the divide, when the waters begin to run the other way, hul tor a little tl:e\ Slav still and lie in small, shining tarns «f silver in the middle of ;• groen-ainl-russet peat-moss or hog, so fascinating that I dare not start to describe it. All I will say is that in Mareli. when last I saw it, it was starry with clusters of white Gentian, spongy with the little leaves of sundew (that carnivore), rosy here and there with the berries of a tiny heath, and here and there purple with the elfin flowers of a tiny inch-high “violet” (to give it a local name, hut much more like a snap-dragon), and (hat these so beguiled me that, standini' still on the peat to enjoy them, I suddenly found I stood in water, like Hans Anderson",s Lady That Trod on ;i Loaf in the middle of a marsh, and did not find it at all sustaining. It is safer, then, to admire the view from the solid road; and. indeed, it is to lie admired, lor from the divide you can look miles and miles ahead, beyond the gap ol the Oiira Gorge, to the distant summits of Westland, and as the road runs on. a glacier comes into view, high up a valley on the left, down which the infant stream d the Olira comes running through the shining “scrub.” The mountain ribhotiwood begins now to fringe the bareness of the roadside with the winsome glad light green ol its leaves, and, in season, the abundant snow ol its blossoms, which are like those of the cherry, and with it. like a faithful brother, the mountain-holly always seems to grow, prickly ol leaf, and gnarled of stem. Another tarn on the left, sheeted with sedges of the loveliest emerald ami red-gold .... a rocky outcrop famous for great silver daisies at mid-summer, and snowy Gentians in autumn ; more ribhonwond, with finches chirping gaily through its groves the beautiful, clear water of “Pegleg Creek.” which certainly deserves a nicer name. ... a hit ol mountain meadow, all danced over with the mauve and jvliite of the delicate mountain hell-flower. and running back up into a real glade of ribbonwoods and holly. . . and then, with a sharp turn or two. the road leaves the Pass.and begins to plunge down into tlk < Itira (Inige.

' Ul'lcducss, and li“ht, and freedom from our human sins and strife and strueele that is what, to one of its lovers, the lki's stands fur cliicllv. 0 blessed place, free from squalor, free from rancour, lice from ier.orancc and full of iicdde and “rent e.eeiteiet that are able to shine into the sou! with more then lie:ht. pttriiy it wHh more then water, and stronnllicn i( with more than the .stability of mo’inticins, and the* cnorjries of ici.si c*rir- 1 force. "I.ivo as on a mountain." Counsels Marc us Aurelius. Wo do lent lend it easy, when the daily path leads, a- it su often dues, thrum'll done! Is and rpiaemii'c:- and dull and dreary fiats. But it is certainly the easier lor tin* hastiest nf visits In one of the pure places nf the physical world, like our Arthur’s Pass.