WANDERINGS IN WESTLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 17 January 1930, Page 7

WANDERINGS IN WESTLAND

TWO SEASONS ON THE WEST COAST OF NEW ZEALAND. (By H. E. Newton.) * ) .(Reprinted from the Alpine journal, . February 1915.) I must now, after this long digression, .return to our own story. After wd returned to the Hermitage we' had two. days’ rain, Gut on the third afternoon started off up the Hooker again, Clark coming with us on a horse to put us over* the river, so that we had the. advantage of the track up the glacier. Crossing tire glacier to the AY. side, in three hours we were at a rock camp at the foot 1 of the pass to' the Copland. We got r away at 5 next morning, reached the saddle at 8 without any difficulty, and after a short halt went straight down and at the end of the’ snow stopped i hr for breakfast. .Instead of keeping fairly high to avoid some bad scrub, we went straight down to the ■ river and soon were in .the worst scrub - it ' haA- ever been my fate to tackle. Two miles took us 3.1 hours. About half-way we came upon an old camp site which must have been Fitzgerald's* as no one else, had been foolish enough to tty the river. At 12 o’clock we were just below the Douglas Itock, a shelter rock named after Mr C. Douglas, who had explored many of ‘the'/West Coast valleys. We left at 1 p.m. and, followed an old blaze line to Wtefcome Flat, which we reached ht 6,20. Here we / had to ford the river, and bitterly f cold the water was, and two chains V. wide, though only knee deep. We then walked down the flat and decided to camp for the night. We slept out on the river bed to avoid the mosquitoes, and, getting plenty of moss off some stones, bad a good sleep. Next morning we got off at 8 and turned into thei bush to see some hot springs. In nearly all the West Coast valleys there, are hot springs; at the .Waiho, the river from the Franz Josef, a bath-house has been built, and if the water is too hot it can be cooled by lumps of ice from the river. All these springs are hotter p when the river is up. A horse-track has now been made up from Scott’s, hut then there was only a blaze line through the bush and we had a good deal of ‘bush-whacking.” At Architect Creek we turned off to look at our old camp site of 1902, where, almost foodless, we had lain in pools ol' water under a leaking tent and fought mosquitoes all night. Alter that the river bed was less confined and we got a "ood deal of open walking. It was dark when we got out on to the' open country, and we got onn rathe" dee" fm-rl: fo'Hinatelv. T / lenew pretty well where the Main {south Hoad, a track about sft wide, left the river bed, and at 9 p.m. we

were at Scott’s comfortable bouse and soon were enjoying a good meal. The next day I got my horse and started to ride up to Ross, meeting Low and P. Graham at the Waiho, they having come over by Graham’s Saddle and down bv the Franz - Josef.

I heard afterwards that Woodham, whom we had left at our camp up La Perouse Glacier, had been very anxious when we did not return to time, and at last had come out to Scott’s to see if there was any news of us.

This was my fourth year in the Southern Alp«, and it was the first year I had been able to climb a.peak; when it is impossible to get porters and tents and food have to be carried in, so much time is lost in the necessary work beforehand, that often there is nothing left for real climbing. However, I shall never regret the experience-; we managed to solve one or two small problems for the Survey Department- and to get a very fair collection of photographs, the majority of which were new.

In 1906 the obvious tiling seemed to be to go up Cook’s River again and try to climb some of the peaks at the head of the valley, as we had done nothing in the valley, and there was the track open and a certain amount of tinned meat which would do in a case of emergency. 'I left Ross on Monday, January 15, and had a week of services at various places in the .southern part of the parish, and then met Teichelmann and Low, who was to join us that year. When 1 had been at the Wailio I heard that my ice-axe, which I' had lost down a crevasse on the Franz Josef Gllaeicir four 'years ago,, ,had been found on the surface of tho glacier and about a quarter of a mile below where it had been lost. On Wednesday, January 24, after a wretched night in an old digger’s but, we started up the well-known track; we were all very much out of condition, and were carrying heavy swags. Soon it came on to rain, and we were wet through, and found the wet, slippery bush more fatiguing than ever. However, at last we reached Tony’s Rock, where we found Alec Graham, who, with the help of of a digger named Anderson, had got all the swags exeunt one no to the reck. Next day Graham and I. with a swag apiece, set off in the usual rain to the base camp: they had not been able to pitch it, owing to the bad weather, but had carried up several swags and bad planted thorn under some rocks. The site of the camp this year was n little higher up. the valley, with a magnificent view of the hills at the head of the valley. Tn the afternoon the weather cleared a little, and wo liifehed the flv to let the ground dry a little and then returned fo the others. Next morning we all got off at 6 with heavy swags, and reached the camp just as it began to rain, and we had a miserable time fixing the tent ill the wet, bringing the other swags from where they had been left, collecting firewood, and setting stones for the fireplace and floor. We even tried to dry some send) by the fire for bedding. One of the troubles of a camp up a new valley is the inquisitiveness of the ken, a mountain parrot which has

i earned .an .'unenviable notoriety .on I the Canterbury side by picking the kidney out of live sheep. Our first year in the hills we had- heard a. kea on the ridge pole, and we lay in our blankets and said ‘How delightful to be where birds are not afraid of man!’ But the next thing we knew .was the sound of tearing calico, and a kea looking through the hole to see how we were getting on. This year I got up at once and shot him before he had time to do any damage, and a few hours later he was in the ‘billy,’ eking out the tinned beef. .Curiously enough, there have been no complaints, of their attacking sheep on that part of the const. My own idea is that though the slieep are sent up on to tho bills in summer there is sufficient scrub to enable them to brush off any kea that might light on their backs, and certainlv it is a habit acquired in the last 50 years by a bird not otherwise carnivorous, and I believe in Canterbury it is still local, but once a kea lias tasted kidney be becomes a moral wreck.

On the following afternoon it cleared, and we got our first view of the bills. The next day Teichel maun. Low and I started up to the high camp of last year. AVe found some food we had left the year before, quite eatable, and AVoodliam’s bed under the rock quite dry. AVe pitched a small oiled fly and l wattled the end to do for two, while the other two could sleep under the rock. It came on to .rain again just as we finished and we returned to camp fairly wet, stopping to bathe on the way. The next day w.e took up final swags to the top camp; the following morning was glorious, and Low and I set off up the hillside above us to pick a place to bivouac before attempting,La Perouse. AVe found a capital spot where the snow had melted away in front of a big reck, and prepared a place to sleep on. There must have been snow 300 yds. below the rock, and yet we found a Alaori Hen’s nest just deserted under the rock and the tracks in all direction. The Alaori Hen or AA-eka, a flightless rail, about the size of a Leghorn, has suffered much from the weasels which were imported into New Zealand to kill the (imported) raobits, and I believe that this couple had nested for safety so high up, for wlnm they built that nest the snow would have extended much further. AA’e returned to camp for lunch, and in the afternoon we all set off to the bivouac with our blankets. AVe arrived in a thick fog, which cleared off after tea, and Graham went down for some water for the morning, while I stamped steps up in the snow above us. We got off next morning at 3.50 with the intention of making an attempt on La Perouse. It was a glorious morning, though heavy log was lying in the valley below. AVe went straight up to roach the crest of tic spur between the Gulch Glacier and La Perouse Glacier. In I f hours we were on the (‘rest and then followed it along for 3j hours; twice wo lost a good deal of time in getting to tho top of a gendarme and finding we could not get down, anil being compelled to descend and turn it on Hie north. After a V hour halt for breakfast, we set off up the final peak,

leaving everything behind, as white clouds were beginning to pile up behind the big peaks, and we were afraid of bad weather. In 40 min. we readied the ridge between the rock shoulder so conspicuous from the valle.y and the final peak; we had to chip steps all the way in the hard snow. On the arete wo halted for a moment, as we had come up very fast. Wo had been afraid of a cornice on the Canterbury side, but forunateiy it was quite free. The slopes eased off a JittJe, we acre able to get on with very little cutting, and in an hour we stood on “the summit at 10.50.

Before we started in we had heard of the crossing of Alt. Cook which Mr | M. Ross described in a recent paper. and wo bad also heard that they hud designs on La Perouse, so we had been I looking anxiously for tracks, but we were unable to see any, and felt pretty certain that ours was the first ascent alter all. I was very glad to have such a good view of the upper W . face- ol Cook and the upper glaciation, which was almost unknown. Teicholmann took a few photos, but it was so hazy that they were chiefly valuable for topography. AVe then went to the lower peak on the arete leading to Harper's Saddle, about 45 ft, lower, and tried to get some prismatic readings, but we found tho wind to strong. We then returned to our sacks, had a cup of tea and some food, and set off down at 2.10. On our way up we had noticed a fairly broad snow gully without any rocks or break in it, so we unroped and g’issaded down. Soon we ran into the fog, and though we knew that there was no danger ahead we went, slowly and reached our bivouac in lhr. 27 min. actual going from the top. After a cup of tea we returned to our high camp in a thick fog. It had been a pleasant climb, and the first virgin peak any of us bad ascended. The next day Graham went down to the base camp to bake some more scones, as there was very little wood at the high camp, while we washed and dried clothes, our chief difficulty being the Maori Hens, as they managed to steal nearly' all the soap. I had knocked my camera rather badly on one of the rocks, lowering it in my sack before descending, and bad found that it was out of order, so I set to work to try to repair it. One of the vulcanite sectors of tlie shutter was broken, and at first it seemed a hopeless job with no tools or material, but at last I got a little thin tin off the top of a milk tin, and with the-aid of a pair of nail scissors with a file on the back I got a shutter cut out of it that would work, and it did so well that I did not get another till I had the camera- overhauled in England two years later. The next two days the weather was too uncertain to do anything of interest. On February 5 we got away on a doubtful morning, which soon improved. However, we had started too late and too low to attempt Jany big climb. For 1$ hours we went up the fairly level glacier till opposite Harper’s -Saddle, and then made our way up the- main icefall, which comes down in a big semicircle, part of it coming into the lower .glacier at right angles to its course. It was up this part, facing Harper’s S addle, that we got a route; at the head of the fall we went straight up to a low saddle looking into the Balfour, and climbed up a small rock knob on our right, 2J- hours from the foot of the ice-fall. It was then a beautiful day, and we took a round of photographs. The most intreesting thing was the huge precipice which cuts the Balfour in two, and over which the upper glacier falls in avalanches to re-form below into the lower glacier. While we were there an avalanche fell at almost regular intervals of five minutes. 1 was fortunate enough to secure a photograph of one. After lunch we returned to our high camp. On the next afternoon we went up to a bivouac we had noticed about an hour up the glacier. The next morning we got off at 3.15 and went up the glacier for an hour by lantern light, and, following our previous route through the ice-fa-11, bore to our right up the main -glacier, bur intention being to get to the saddle at the bead of the valley between Mt. Tasman and Alt. Dampier. We had seen two days previously the obvious way round the foot of Alt. Hicks, which was only a matter of tramping and avoiding one or two clearly marked crevasses, but the certainty of the one route, though it meant -reaching an untrodden col. did not seem so attractive as an attempt to force the upper icefall, which had also seemed feasible. AVe got through the icefall after a little cutting, but were stopped by the wide crevasse on the top, through which we thought we had seen a route. AA e retraced our steps and tried again on tho north side, only to he stopped again. AVe then tried again under Alt. Hicks., and were getting along rapidly when it began first to rain and then to snow, so we decided to give it u]) and return. It was a ro- I minder of the lesson one is so apt to forget—that in new country one must be content at first with the easiest routes. If anyone makes tho first crossing of this saddle from the Canterbury side, I would advise him strongly to make at first to the foot of Alt. Hicks and then cross to the right bank of the glacier and descend the part of the fall that faces Harper's Saddle. There would be an alternative for anyone who did not wish to descend the- glacier to the coast: to mount the steep snow on the spur from Hicks which bounds the glacier below Harper’s Saddle on the E., and then near to the final peak of Hicks drop down the snow to Hamer's Saddle and descend to the Hooker and the Hermitage, At pro- |

sent this would probably mean a night out on the upper Hooker, near where we had slept the previous year. We sot back to our bivouac in one hours and jlO min., and, being now in the sunshine again, boiled the billy and had lunch, and amused ourselves by photographing avalanches off the great rock face of La Perouse opposite. We then returned to the top camp, and Graham went on down to the base camp to cook some scones. While the others were away next morning I found a Maori Hen withhis bill stuck in the butter, which he evidently thought much better than soap; so, feeling that there was a limit to his amusing tricks, I smote him with a stick and added him to the contents of the ,stc\vpot. Aftertea Low-, Graham, and I sett off to the bivouac up the glacier to try Mt, Hicks next day, Teichelmann deciding not to go, as he had a sore heel. At. 2.30 we got off by moonlight on an ominously warm morning, and followed our previous route through the icefall. finding the snow soft. At the head of the fall we crossed the glacier to the long rock spur from Alt. Hicks, which we reached at 5.10. The snow' had now improved and we were able to advance rapidly up the snowon the top of the ridge. At 6.30 we were below' the final rise, and after a halt of half an hour for food w-e sot off, flitting steps up the steep snow gully which ran up on the race of Hicks. We took to the rocks where the gully forks, and found them excellent climbing, though steep. Bearing to our left slightly, we reached the crest of the ridge running to Harper’s Saddle. Here we found a very strong wind blowing, so strong that we bad to sit down and straddle along the narrow snow' ridge, which was broken by one short pitch of rock. At 10.15 we were on the summit; below' us the Hooker was buried in fog, out of which La Perouse and Sefton rose majestically. Mt. Cook towered 2000 ft above us, giving us a splendid view' of the couloir leading to Green’s Saddle, while the great N.W. rock fate w'as a strange aspect of Cook, which is generally seen as an entirely snow mountain. Due E. the. divide ran up to Dampier, the third highest mountain in Now Zealand, and then, turning sharp N., ran across Clark’s Saddle at the head of our valley and then over the Silberhorn to Tasman, in my opinion the finest of the New Zealand peaks and presenting a curiously similar aspect from every side. Further X. we could see the peaks at the head of the Franz Josef, and then the forest-covered hills running down to the Pacific. We were able to pick out the bluffs on the beach as far as the Wanganui River, eighty miles to the north—not to be confused with the North Island river of that name—while we could see Jackson’s Bay nearly 100 miles to the -S., inland from which we could see Mt. Aspiring rising above the surrounding peaks. We were afraid to wait, in ease the wind got w'orse, so after a round of photos, which I had to take lying on tho snow to avoid unsteadiness, we set off down. As usual, for drink we relied! ‘entirely upon an* aluminium sto' e to make tea from melted snow r . and the tragedy of the trip occurred when the methyl a ttld spirit bottle .slipoed out of my pocket and broke tc pieces on the rock below. W e went some way down the long spur and halted for a dry lunch under some rocks to get out of the wind; then wo floundered down the snow, which was now very soft, and reached the bivouac, and, picking up our sleeping bags, got back to the top camp at 7.40, to he welcomed by Teichelmann and a large bi 11 vof tea. We all slept well, except that I was 'awakened twice by a Maori hen dabbing at my ear; I sivopose he thought it a new kind of soap! After dinner we packed everything into four large swags and went down to the base camp. The next morning we started early with four large swags. At Tony’s Rock Low and I turned back to fetch the rest out, while the Doctor and Graham went straight out to the diggers’ hut. Our last swag from the base c-amp was colossal ; what would not go in was tied on the outside, and we walked to a clattering accompaniment of frying-pans, billies, an axe, and a slasher. Next morning we went out to the diggers’ hut, meeting Graham and Anderson going in for the last swags. Rain was coming on, and the hut, of which one end bad fallen out, was alive with mosquitoes and sandflies. We had left a horse on that side of the river which Teichelmann had taken to go to Scott’s, promising to send up our horses for us. After an uneasy night, while we were at breakfast Graham and Anderson returned, having raced the rain, which came on just- as they arrived. By three o’clock the' river was : unfordalfie. and we had only brought out enough food for one meal, expecting the horses on our arrival, while ncoss the river we could see Anderson’s camp, wliiofc was well stocked with food. Anderson was used to the bush and put on the most terrific ‘smudge’ T have ever seen; he smoked contentedly in the thick smoke: we coughed and bore it. as preferable fo the mosquitoes. Next day Scott arrived about- 12, and, after driving a horse across to see what the ford was like, brought the others over, end we soon ln*u the packs on and were across at Anderson’s tent, where w-' had a much-needed meal and then went through to the main ‘S. road, et that noint a rather vague bridle track. T rode tlirough to the Waiho, reaching it after dark, and the next dev I '-ode miles and got home early the following morning in time for my S n nday’s work. Thus ended our second trip up tlie bn Reronse Cl! 'cior. T have not heard of another party going up there since, There is

a good deal of new work to be done there, as there is all along the coast, but it is rough work, and by this time our track will be completely overgrown again. I appreciate the guides, the hotels, the lints,, the footpaths, and, perhaps most of all, the bridges of Switzerland, as only the man can who for six years had to do without such luxuries. I must even confess to being often relieved to find well-defined nail-marks on rocks, or tracks over the snow, or basest of all, a fixed rope, but I would like to have another season on the West Coast of New Zealand before I grow too old to rough it.