EARLY CLIMBS OF EGMONT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 218, 20 October 1909, Page 3

EARLY CLIMBS OF EGMONT.

THE FIRST LADY'S ASCENT—IBS 3. (By "C.W.W.") Native tradition says that the first man to climb Egmont was "Naki," the intrepid Maori, who, in spite of the ad vice, warnings and expostulations of hid tribe, persisted in his intention of going to the top of Egmont. The "taniwha," the Maoris said, would certainly swallow him; besides, he would be breaking the "tapu." However, go he did, beiu,! absent about a fortnight. The Maoris gave him up for lost, when he suddenly reappeared and said he had been to the top of the mountain; hence the name,

"Tara," the hill, and "Naki," of Naki. Others derive the name "Tara," the hil', 'Naki," lifeless, treeless, or naked hill. Unquestionably the first European ascent was that accomplished by Dr. Die:'fenback and Mr. Hebberley, an old whaler, about Christmas time, 1847-48. They proceeded, after one false start, up the valley of the Waiwakaiho river, probably the roughest route they could have chosen, though doubtless the most obvious in those days of universal, unknown and impenetrable bush. After reaching the summit, Dr. Dieffenback returned with the astonishing information that the top of Egmont was a mile square, and the mountains Ngaruahoe and Ruapehu lay due west. The mountain is not more than about 250 yards or so square at the top, and the volcanoes are almost due east.

The following climb was probably that of Mr. Wellington Carrington and Mr. Dillon Bell (afterwards.Sir D. Bell), who discovered the falls on Stony river, and narrowly escaped, it is said, falling over the precipice on the river bank. Mr. Richard Brown ascended next—l daresay from the Wanganui side—with a Maori who was sufficiently venturesome to break the "tapu," and left their names in a bottle. Mr. R. Brown was a merchant and commission agent in tat town of New Plymouth, and was shot down by the Maoris on the beach, by the Waiongona river, in 1800, dying from the effects of the wound. Mrs. Arthur S. Atkinson, of Nelson (then Miss Richmond) was the first lady to ascend Mt. Egmont, in March, 1855. A party consisting of Miss Richmond, the late Mr. Henry Richmond, Mr. Arthur Atkinson (la"te of Nelson), Mr. Harry Atkinson (afterwards Sir Harrv, late Premier of New Zealand), Mr. Dccimus Atkinson (since drowned in Kawhia harbor), Mr. Edward Patten (afterwards Collector of Customs at Hokitika and latterly of Christchurch), Mr. F. C. Wilson (afterwards in the Govern-' ment Survey Department, and. subse-i quently lost at sea in the Home voyage of the, ship "Mataoka," in 1869, from Lyttellon), together with myself, started at the close of February, 1855, from Hurworth, on the Carrington road, laden with goodly "swags" of provisions and rugs, along the then "Pnritutu line," fop Upper Mangorei, From thence we cut a line through dense, untouched and primeval bush, in a direct south-east course, for Egmont.. After the first comp the system adopted was for the males of the party to go forward cutting the line, leaving the swags and Miss Richmond at the camp, in the weird recesses of the forest, to preside over the cuisine, returning towards evening. The line-cutters, after dining plentiful 1 !-, if not luxuriously, each picked up his load, and all, including Miss Richmond, journeyed on the extremity of the line which had been cut, there camping for the night. On one occasion the bivouac was on a bushed and verdant island in the Waiwakaiho river. It thus took U3 one whole week to Tench the eastern spur of the Waiongona Gorge, Mr. Henry Richmond fulfilling the role 01 the pioneer and compass-bearer the whole time.

From our last camp 4n the cypress i scrub, on the spur of"the gorge just op- ; posite to where the mountain house no jv ( stands on the western spur, only about a furlong higher up, we descended in tie I early morning of the Bth of March, 1855, ] into Waiongona's rocky defile, marching | slowly on to the head of the gorge. The weather had been brilliantly fin", < with scarcely a cloud in the sky fo: , over a week past. The splintered crags , of the "Castle," since then known as , "Humphries' Castle," were decided vis- v ible, and thus sighted probably long i before Mr. T. Humphries, now Chief f Surveyor, gazed on them. _ i We proceeded over the flower-sprmk- i led, mossy slopes of the mountain, past boulders and stony prominences, througa ] feet deep of loose shingly shale, direct , for the eastern peak of Egmont, till > airiving just below the tindery and < sooriac°roeks of the summit, which look- 1 cd as if they could not do otherwis" than topple over on us. We eventually < •mined the foot of the eastern peak, to , find it not less than about a nine-foo* s ■precipice, a little difficult to negotiate, but bv the aid of a deep vertical fissure ; or shaft in the face of the cliffs we , shortly stood on its level top. To my- • self it seems now a question whetlwr ] this peak is not the highest point of Ernnont on the »w Plymouth side, t~, , rocks further on permitting of a descent on to the snow-filled erater. We crossed the snow to the nortl- | western peak, where we discovered M". R. Brown's record, with his name and , his Maori companion's in a bottle. In ] those days of milder climate, the surface of the snow was possibly softer and more yielding than its present glaccd , and more slippery condition All whs still on the summit, except the distant , murmur of the surf on the shore, ini the fitful sighing of the winds among ' the mountain's riven "peaks. Altera fitting sojourn, and depositing all the party's names in a bottle among tjc slivered rocks of the crater's sdge, we re-crossed the snow to the eastern peik a«ain, experiencing some little troub.e and slight risk in reaching the "Arete,' after which winding our way down through the cindery boulders we divel into the loose shingle, sitting down on which we descended pretty quickly t■> firmer footing, then to the moss, finally to the top of the Waiongona Gorge again, thence to the 'bivouac in the scrub. A fine view of smoking Ngaruahos, together with the snowy heights of Ruipehu.was obtained in going up. .A thunder shower was also witnessed, the lightning seen, and the roll of tEe thunder heard far below us. In the morning following the ascent a number of the company left the wild and silent solitudes of'the mountain for the ci/i----liaed haunt ■; of men once more, everyone at the time convinced that the ascending route we took was the easiest to he found on Egmont, and that it ooght to be styled the "ladies' ascent." By the self-same route a later as cent wa« made by some officers of the fiofh Regiment, then stationed at X«.v Plymouth —Lieutenant Bayly, Ensign (afterwards Lieutenant) Whitbiend Arho was killed long after by a fall Jfmn I'.v horse in Wellington), Mods. De Moulin, commissioned officers, two private soldiers, Mr. F. C. Wilson, and myself. Mr. R. 'Fhenoy, then editor of the "Taranaki News," also accompanied the party, though he did not get further than the head of the rocky ravine. A Mr. Frank Adams then went up. The late Mr. Benjamin Wells, at one time editing th? "\ews," pursuing the same course, climbed tile mountain, crossed it over the snow (rom 'h? east to the western summits descending behind the "Tortoise." down the Stony river gorge beside its impetuous and glittering torrent across the swamp and ov?r the ranges, home.