With Youth Upon the Broad Highway

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 9, 8 September 1933, Page 12

With Youth Upon

the Broad Highway

’ Rustle the tussock, and the birds are calling, The sea below : Murmurs, upon its beaches, rising falling, Soft, soft, and slow. In other words, Banks Peninsula-calling with all the might of its rocky peaks, its rolling grasslands, sheltered valleys, glistening bays-paradise for the tramper, and for the lazy man, too. Canterbury counts itself fortunate in the possession of the peninsula, and each: week-end sees hosts of young folk (and some who are not so young) settting out, packs on backs, for the hostels which are now dotted about at convenient points. Let us go back to the beginning of the youth hostel scheme and see how it originated. When organised tramping was first taken up in Germany and England the young people who were anxious to "see their own country first," found that the charges of the ordinary tourist hotels exhausted their slender weekly incomes at an alarming rate. Schemes were discussed and soon youth hostels were opened-large buildings in thé Black Forest, along the banks of the Rhine, in the Cotswolds, down the leafy

lanes of Sussex-and beds and meals made available to the youth of the country at very small charges. The admirable arrangement of these hostels was looked into by Miss Cora Wilding, of Christchurch, during a, visit to Europe, and by Miss Carol West-Watson (now Mrs. Leicester Webb, of Christchurch), who spent a year or two on the Continent and

returned to the Dominion last year. The result was that a meeting of enthusiastic trampers was called early last year and the Youth Hostel Association of New Zealand was formed, of which I was a member of the committee. We could not afford, of course, to build elaborate hostels all over the Canterbury countryside, but: we approached householders at various bays on Banks Peninsula asking if they would consider accommodating trampers for a small sum. That outstanding pioneer, Sir Arthur Dobson, consented to become the president of the association, and his knowledge of Canterbury has helped the body out of many difficulties. A committee was set up and the

questions of rules and costs were discussed. At almost every bay of note on the peninsula some land-owner was willing to accommodate trampers who carried the association’s membership card. The idea was that the various tramping clubs in Canterbury should affiliate with the association and that the members could become members of the association by buying Youth Hostel cards for one shilling each. This entitled them to seek accommodation at the various hostels-one shilling for a bed and one shilling for a meal. The scheme worked splendidly from the start. The tramping bug had just taken a firm hold of young Christchurch and soon the hostels were in use every week-end. The list was gradually extended-there are now more than a dozen hostels at different points-and the tramper has come to accept them as part of his week-end tour. . To enter fully into details of the tramps which may be undertaken on the peninsula would require the whole of this paper. There are many charming walks within easy distance of the Cashmere Hills-Kennedy’s Bush, the Sign of the Kiwi, the Mount. Pleasant track, Cooper’s Knobs, Governor’s Bay-and there are the walks where a week-end, or even a week, is necessary if

the tramper is to see any of the beauties of the country through which he is travelling — Akaroa, Long Bay, the Akaroa lighthouse, Le Bon’s Bay, Scenery Nook, Mount. Bossu-but every trip is thoroughly worthwhile. -. Nowhere in Canterbury can one hope to gain stich glorious views. as the peninsula offers. Little bays set like emeralds at the foot of steep cliffs, rolling grasslands, farm-

houses beneath high hills, wonderful panoramas of sea and land, a thin wisp of smoke cutting the distant horizon-a vessel from the Chathams or perhaps from the East-vista after vista, satisfying, wild, fascinating! From his observations made while off the coast of Banks Peninsula Captain Cook computed the circumference as 24 leagues, remarkably near the actual measurement. "It is probable," writes Johannes Andersen, "that an old land surface stretched eastward, perhaps as far as the Chatham Islands, and that the volcano of the peninsula was formed in and on this land surface. The extinction of the volcano resulted, probably, in the formation of large crater hollows and. the -radiating

The article on this page, written specially for the "Radio Record" by a former member of the committee of the Youth Hostel Association of New Zealand, touches on the growth of the movement which was started in Canterbury last year, and has now spread its net wide. Radio has played an important part in bringing the work of the association before the public, and, on Monday next, Sept. 11, at 7.15 p.m., Mr. W. A. Hammett, secretary to the association, will speak from 3YA on "Tramping on Banks Peninsula."

valleys. . . . Mount Herbert and Quail Island were formed by a cycle of eruptions following a period of quiescence... . The peninsula was an island at a comparatively recent date." ’ The Port Hills-Akaroa Summit Road will, for all time, be connected with the name of Mr. H. G. Ell, who has laboured for more than 20 years to open up this glorious pathway over the peninsula, but his efforts have not stopped at the main work, .. He has secured for the people of Canterbury many fine pieces of native bush, bush which, but for Mr. Ell’s efforts, would by now have fallen under the axe. He has built four fine stone rest-houses at different points-the Sign of the Takahe, the Sign of the Kiwi, above Governor’s Bay, the Sign of the Bellbird, and the Sign of the Packhorse on the windswept Kaituna Saddle. These resthouses are artistic triumphs. The Sign of the Takahe, which is not yet fully completed, is a two story building with Gothic windows and archways. In a few months one of the rooms in this building will have a frieze worth thousands of poundsheraldic shields belonging to old families of New Zealand on a specially-painted background. It was to a little boy of eight astride a shaggy pony on one of the hilltops above Lyttelton Harbour that the Great Thought came-the Great Thought of saving the native bush, the glorious views, the sandy bays and the birds for future generations. But it was the man of mature years, the member of Parliament, who was able to put the Great Thought before the people and see it taken up and endorsed. One of Mr. EIll’s first actions when he was sent to Parliament to represent Christchurch City in 1899 was to have the remainder of Kennedy’s Bush set aside as a sanctuary for native birds, and the work of saving the hills has gone on ever since, until to-day roads and tracks, roadside houses and shelters, native bush and birds-all form part of the living monument to this man to whom one can give no higher praise than to say he has spent himself for his fellows. In a hundred years the Sign of the Takahe wil! be mellow with age; in 200 it will be as sound as the day it was built . . . and the road that is the ultimate goal . . . a thoroughfare that will one day wind round the hilltops of the peninsula from Godley Lighthouse to Akatoa. Mr. Ell’s eyes light up when he speaks of it. "Imagine," he says, "views of sea and plain, hilltop and glen, the great unbroken stretch of the Southern Alps away in the distance: Can you wonder that I.am fighting for it,-and will fight for it to the very end? ‘There will not be a finer road in New Zealand."

"AK MERRY HEART GOES ALL THE WAY."’Scenes at and near the youth hostels on the West Coast and Banks Peninsula: (1) A bush track near Mitchell’s on the Coast; (2) Taupo River, between Kumara and Jackson’s; (3) the youth hostel at Pigeon’s Bay; (4) the Duvauchelle’s Bay Hotel, which serves as a youth hostel; | (5) open country near Hokitika; (6) a patch of bush at ~ : Port Levy. . . There is scarcely a portion of Banks Peninsula which is not in some way connected with the early history of Canterbury, and the very. names of the bays, the peaks and the hamlets have associations with the early settlers. For example, the Cashmere Hills, the portion of the peninsula with which Christchurch people are most concerned, took their name from the: estate of the late Sir John Cracroft Wilson, who was knighted for his services during the Indian Mutiny. Kashmir was the name given by Sir John to his Canterbury estate, but the spelling was later changed to Cashmere. Godley Head was named after John Robert Godley, one of the founders of Canterbury, while Jollie’s Bush was named after Mr. Edward Jollie, . who was associated with Captain Thomas in laying out Christchurch and much of the land round North Canterbury; It was due to the late Mr. Jollie’s enthusiasm that the people of Christchurch now possess that fine reserve, Hagley Park. So much for Banks Peninsula. The Youth Hostel Association was not long in spreading its wings and taking a peep at the West Coast. With a splendid train service to Arthur’s Pass the opening of hostels in the Southern Alps was discussed early this year and there are now several hostels at different points. The Southern Alps gladden the hearts of both the mountaineer and the mote modest tramper. On one hand are giddy peaks where ice picks and all the paraphernalia of strenuous mountaineering are necessary; on the other are rolling hills and mountain paths where the less adventurous may indulge in their own particular tramping fancies. And the hostels, ‘of course, are of use to both classes, although the mountaineer may leave them far behind when he gets into the snow country. The Youth Hostel scheme has now spread both north and south-the Tararua Tramping Club in Wellington made inquiries soon after the association was formed, and there are now several hostels in the Tararuas, while Auckland has established several in the Waitakeres. Marlborough has made inquiries, Dunedin is interested, Nelson ‘recently published a story on the association’s activities-in fact, the whole of New Zealand has shown a keen interest in a scheme that had its birth in Christchurch, . ,