ON THE TARARUAS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1084, 10 April 1913, Page 4

ON THE TARARUAS.

Mr Alex. McMimi writes very interestingly in the N.Z. Times of a trip up the Xararuas in the early days. He says;

“I read with much interest the account of the successful ascent of the Tararuas by a small party of : ladies and gentlemen, under the guidance of the veteran explorer, Mr Morgan Carkeek, who, I am pleased to learn, is still able to undertake such arduous expeditions. Forty odd years ago, when I first knew Mr Morgon Carkeek, he had then attained fame as one of the most daring explorers of the Tararuas. All his old associates have passed away, though the names of such well-known pioneer surveyors as H. S. Palmerston, the two Dundases, the two Mitchells (generally distinguished by the settlers of those old days as ‘long Mitchell’ and ‘short Mitchell’), Herman and others whose names I have forgotten for the moment, are still held in grateful recollection by the few surviving old identities. For were they not the pioneers of settlement and colonisation, in those far off days, when the interior of the West Coast of the North Island, between Manawatu (indeed I might say the Rangitikei river), and Paekakaribi was a vast trackless terra incognita. “Mr Field is entitled to every credit "for his efforts to further public interest in mountaineering in the Tararuas, It has, or should have, au indescribable fascination for Anglo-Saxons. I speak from a trip to a peak of the Tararuas made in IS7O or ’7l. The peak was Kapakapanui, which we approached from Waikanae, crossing the river, if I remember aright, over fifty times. I never made a trip which realised such intense enjoyment. I can understand the call of the Antarctic after many trips on the ranges, a very full description of which I wrote at the time for the Wanganui Herald. We were on Kapakapanui over three weeks, as I got up there with a large party of natives who carried up in sections a trig station which I presume is still there. We had lovely weather (we reached the summit on May Ist) until the last day, when dense fog preceded heavy rain. I shall never forget the delights of that expedition. It was simply indescribably charming from beginning to end. “On the morning of our return I inscribed on the trig station where to find a spring of water very close to the summit, and also wrote one of Longfellow’s verses in the ‘Psalm of Life,” beginning “Footsteps that perhaps another,” etc. I wonder are those lines, written all those years ago, still decipherable ? the moss—well, description is simply impossible. From brightest crimson to the most sombre green into which the foot sank at every step up to the knee.

“ And the view! Such a glorious panorama ! We used to watch Cobb’s coach crossing the Waikanae river, on one side, and also on its road to Wairarapa. We could see almost overlook every steamer entering Wellington harbour. And a very interesting sight was to watch the lighthouses sending out their warning to mariners as darkness fell on tbe ocean. The silence was somewhat depressing, as I got out of hearing of the men clearing the site for the trig station. Of life there was none—except the übiquitous blow fly, which never deserted us. The weather was superb all the time, and the view still lingers in my recollection as something the equal of which I shall, probably never see again. I felt the fascination of these vast, solemn mountain ranges, and X feel it still, after all the intervening years, “I seriously proposed to Mr Mitchell to let me remain behind, but he laughingly declined to accede to my request, though hp admitted that the Tararuas had a wondrous fascination of their own that appealed to every lover of Nature in her varying moods. And you are brought into close contact with the mystery and the sudden changing of these moods in a special degree when standing on those high elevations and surveying the vast expanse of lake and river, ocean and forest, forming a grand and unsurpassed panorama, of which the citizens of Wei-

lington can form no idea without actual experiences of the inexpressible delights of a mountaineering expedition such as the Tararuas afford. I was loath to return to civilisation after my delightful trip in these mountains, of which the natives of our party told me, by the camp fire, so many thrilling incidents and legends. Our guide and man in charge of the natives was Mr Benjamin Stickles, a halfcaste now living near Levin, but in feeble health-

“Most certainly the Government should do something liberal to facilitate the accessibility of the Tararuas, as they should yet prove one of the chief attractions to tourists as their innumerable charms of scenery and association became more generally known. By the bye, is there a Mount Carkeek among those elevations on the Tararuas which bear distinguished names ? There should be, for his name will always be associated (together with those of the pioneer surveyors of the bygone days who have passed away) >vith the early ascents and exploration of the Tararua ranges, when the obvious perils of such a journey had to be taken into serious account. I hope that mountaineering will receive a direct impetus through the rightly interesting story of the latest expedition, as told in your paper last week.”