ON A THROUGH TICKET.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10067, 8 February 1909, Page 1

ON A THROUGH TICKET.

-V HOLIDAY MO UK nil LCSS CONVENTIONAL. (Written foi' the Oamam Mai!.J Yhe Lako Town. Queenstown. improves on ;u , i|uniiiinua > . I reached it in tho ovoning. af'U.-r a day's travelling: and' was by no imyniimpressed by it& beantv. In the lading light, as viewed from tlie deck of the steamer, the famous little lake town looked | commonplace. But the following mornt:. lt rectified this; and I found Qiu'enwcnvn only too willing to exhibit its ihann;-, tu those who take the trouble to search ior them. The lake town itself is a cleanly, quaint-looking little place—a curious mixture of bustle, and quietude. '1 wicc in the day—at early morning and at evening—it is awake/and its narrow streets present an activity which i* in itsel/ vauenrr that the normal population oi 750 lias been very considerably augmented by the tourists. For the remainder of the day Queenstown do/.es; perhaps sleeps. h you enter a shop anywhere about midday you feel yourself somewhat of a disturber of a fellow man's rest, an intruder upnti the sanctity of private life. lady friend of mine, who wished to make a small purchase, was highly amused early one afternoon, oil reaching the principal store, to see placed in the window a card with this iegend written thereon: "(Jone to •dinner; back at two o'clock!" but alter ai! tlie midday quiescence of Queenstown is easily understood. The tourists, who make the life of the place, do not travel there simply to lounge about the hotel or boardinghouse doors, or promenade the streets for the sake of looking into the shop-windows. Any purchases can be made at the beginninc or the end of a day, and the principal part or one's time is taken up with sightseeing : for there is plenty to see at Queonstown. From the hill at the back of the town a delightful series of natural pictures is presented to the eye ; and as one travels' up the path, considerately made by the Tourist Department for the convenience of visitors, spots are met with from which many of the pretty postcard j views are obtained. The hill in question is 2700 ft high, but the gradual rise of the track makes ascent comparatively easy, and the splendid panorama witnessed Iroiu the .top, of lake and town, valley and mountain, is a sufficient recompense for any trouble one takes to gain the vantagepoint. l.'ut it is not necessary to climb lo view some, at least, of the beauties <u Queenstown. ft possesses a pleasant park, picturesquely siiuated on a tongue of land jutting out into the lake. Her-e one can, sitting in the shade of the trees, listen to the cool plash of the fish as they gambol in the ornamental lakelet ; watch the clouds as they lazily float over i\w. summit of the Uemarkables: or dreamily view the ever-changing color ot tlie lake-water a> it glistens before the eye in the afternoon sun it is a good thing sometimes io 'ot* lazy; and one can do so with a clear consignee in Queenstown Park. As for eo- ! c-ial life, the average visitor dot\s not trouble much about it ; he is here to-day and gone to-morrow. Personally. 1 found the Qtieenstowners exceedingly kindly <1 is. posed: and when I mention that they p;;-.-sessagood bowling-green : and that at one of the churches on Sunday evening 1 n only heard a tirst-elass up-to-date sermon, but listened to a very creditable rendering of Gounod's "Ave Maria" by a lady resident, it may be taken for granted- that the erstwhile mining township has not neglected the cultivation of those graces without which life becomes a mere existence.

No Motor Cars Need AdpW. After being a day or two in Queenstown I Temarked on the absence of motor cars, wondering what had happened to the modern Juggernaut. And thereby hangs a tale. At one time the motor car was in evidence—too much so. It frightened the horses on the narrow roads lhat lead in and out of the town, and thus endangered the limbs and lives of those who drove them. It is stated that a man's life was imperilled while driving a spirited horse along one of the roads in question, by a motorist coining up behind him and continually tooting, "Because the i'ellah wouldn't either hurry up or let- me pass!" Then the authorities took a hand, and limited the operations of the motor car to certain localities. These localities are, with a touch of humor that is perhaps unconscious, only reached by roads over, which the motor car is prohibited from running; and thus Queenstown is relieved from an odor by no means that of sanctity, and tourists can 6till enjoy all the thrills accompanying the wild ride to the Skippers without the added possibility of a capsize over a precipice through the plunging of a horse maddened by the raucous toot of the motor horn. This is the tale as it was told me by a resident, and corroborated by a man whose life is spent on the road. " Accommodation for Travellers-" The accommodation at Queenstown — both public and private—is. as far a.s my knowledge extends, good; ;.nd the tariils are graded to suit various pockets. Those who prefer hotels will find their convenience served at from 6s to 10s per day; while boarding-houses range from 4s to 6s. At times the pressure put upon those who eater for the public is great; but they have ingenious ways of surmounting ditliculties, and the size of a building is no criterion as t-o the number of visitors the proprietor will undertake to accommodate. I was told that one establishment entertained no fewer than 60 newcomers at the New Year; and doubtless other places were similarly occupied. On the BSue Water.

Lake Wakatipu has a beauty peculiarly its own; a beauty which may escape the notice of the careless sight-seer. It consists largely of the marvellous shades of greys and browns wliich color the moun-tain-sides, and the weird and fantastic shapes into which the tops of those mountains are thrown. The scene, as viewed from the deck of the steamer, is often one of wild grandeur, which merges into the awesome when a rain squall passes over, leaving behind a- mist through which the craggy heights loom dark and threatening. Then, too, the water itself has its own grim fascination; for the- dweller on the lake-side tells of its cold paralysing embrace; of its treacherous undercurrent; of the almost hopelessness of rescue should one suddenly fall into the deep bluedepths. There is a story told of a party of young men and women who one evening crossed at- the head of the lake from one village to another to attend a social. It the morning their boat was found overturned, togetlier with a man's hat—oi their bodies, not a trace. Those who die in the icy embrace of Lake Wakatipu need no burial.