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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 78

The Southern Alps, Mount Cook

The Southern Alps, Mount Cook

To reach Mount Cook the visitor goes by train from Christchurch or Dunedin to Timaru, thence rail to Fairlie; or from Dunedin to Kurow (120 miles), whence the journey is continued by coach or buggy.

Timaru (Hotels, the Empire and the Grosvenor), is a prosperous sea-port town, which enjoys an exceedingly bracing and equable climate. It is also the chief outlet of a large pastoral and agricultural district. Some of the best trout fishing in the colony may also be had in the district. Mr. Tasker, a very enthusiastic local angler, will be pleased to assist brother disciples of the genial Isaak both theoretically and practically.

The coach leaves Fairlie for the Hermitage bi-weekly. Tourists should on no account travel without the Itinerary published by the New Zealand Government Tourist and Health Resorts Department, which is brought right np to date every season.

Timaru

Timaru

Wheeler and Son, photos

page 100

The distance by coach from Fairlie to the Hermit-age is about 96 miles, and the journey occupies two days. The first stage is to Lake Te Kapo, which is fed by rivers rising in the Godley and Cass Glaciers, and the first glimpse from this beautiful spot will not readily be forgotten. Prominent amongst the snowy peaks which here bound the view, Mt. Sefton (10,350 feet) stands out boldly. Mr. Green says that "the view of this giant peak was more striking from this place than from any other spot in the low country from which we saw it. From this point of view it reminded us in form of the Dent Blanche when seen from the direction of Mount Blanc." The night is spent at Pukaki, 40 miles from Fairlie. Lake Pukaki is fed by numerous glaciers

Cage Across Hooker River, Mt. Cook

Cage Across Hooker River, Mt. Cook

Muir and Moodie, photos

on the eastern slope of the range. On the second day the road runs beside the western shores of Lake Pukaki and on past some sheep stations, till after rounding the Bluff at "Sebastopol" the first view of the Hermita is obtained. This comfortable mountain hotel, which is owned by the Government, is managed by tha Tourist Department; hot and cold water is laid on to the baths. The Hermitage is 2.506 fed above the level of the sea and here the traveller is page 101 face to face with the noble peaks of the great Southern Alps. From the Rangitata to the Waitaki rivers there stretches an unbroken chain of nearly 100 miles, possessing hardly a col or pass free from eternal snow and ice. Some of the individual glaciers are of enormous size. The Tasman Glacier is 18 miles long by three broad, being thus larger than any in the Northern Alps, and only surpassed (outside the Polar regions) by the union of the glaciers in the Mustagh Range of the Himalaya Mountains.

mountaineer

There are a score of peaks over ten thousand feet in height, ranging from Mt. Haidinger (10,034 feet)to Mt. Hector (11,267 feet), Mt. Tasman (11,475 feet), and Mt. Cook (12,349 feet). Perhaps Ruskin could have done some-thing like adequate justice to them, and perhaps some of us, in sight of these prodigies of grandeur, can feel something of what Ruskin felt when he wrote in his "Modern Painters" : "Watch at evening, as the east becomes purple, and the heaving mountains, rolling against it in darkness like waves of a wild sea, are drowned one by one in the glory of its burning; watch the white glaciers blaze in their winding paths about the mountains, like mighty serpents with scales of fire: watch the column or peaks of solitary snow, kindling downwards, chasm by chasm, each in itself a new morning, their long avalanches cast down in keen streams, brighter than the lightning, sending each his tribute of driven snow like altar smoke up to heaven; the rose light of their silent

Ball Hut, Tasman Glacier

Ball Hut, Tasman Glacier

Mts. Sefton and Cook from Mueller Glacier

Mts. Sefton and Cook from Mueller Glacier

Muir and Moodie, photos

page 102
View from Malte Brun Terrace, showing Hut, Guide Clarke, and Mts. Tasmas, Haidinger and Douglas

View from Malte Brun Terrace, showing Hut, Guide Clarke, and Mts. Tasmas, Haidinger and Douglas

Loosing down Mueller Glacier

Loosing down Mueller Glacier

Muir and Moodie photos

page 103
Crossing The Hooker to get on Tasman Glacier

Crossing The Hooker to get on Tasman Glacier

domes flushing that heaven about them and above them, piercing with purer light through its purple lines of lifted clouds, casting a new glory on every wreath as it passes by, until the whole heaven. One scarlet canopy, is interwoven with a roof of waving flame, and tossing vault beyond vault, with the drifted wings of many companies of angels; and then, when you can look no more for gladness, and when you are bowed down with fear and love of the Maker and Doer of this, tell me who has best delivered His message unto men."

The touist could linger nere for many months without exhausting the almost innumerable and amazingly glorious views round and about these Southern Alps. Full particulars may be had at the Hermitage of how to get to the Hooker Glacier, Kea Point (from which a fine view of the avalanches falling from Mount Sefton can be obtained), the Mueller Glacier, and the Sealy Range, from the top of which is a view of the Upper Mueller Glacierand parts of the Hooker and Tasman Glaciers, which will well repay the energy expended in the climb. The Ball and Malte Brun Huts, on the Tasman Glacier, 14 and 22 miles respectively from the Hermitage, should also be visited, and the grand Hochstetter Ice-fall, two miles from the Ball Hut. From the Malte Brun Hut (5,700 feet) some of the finest sunset and sunrise effects in the world are often visible. The Tasman Glacier, with one exception the largest outside the Polar seas, is easily accessible, and walking on it is easy. Competent guides are

person standing on a rock

Hochstettrr Ice Fall, Tasman Glacier

Hochstettrr Ice Fall, Tasman Glacier

Wheeler and Son, photos

page 104

obtainable, and the Government provides bedding and food in the huts. Tourists who don't object to camping out for one night will enjoy the trip to the Murchison Glacier. The flora about Mt. Cook is exceedingly rich and varied, including the Mt, Cook Lily (Ranunculus lyallii), the Senccio lyallii, several varieties of Celmisia the Edelweiss, and representatives of many other species of Alpine flowers.

Mt. Cook Lily (Ranunculus lyallii)

Mt. Cook Lily (Ranunculus lyallii)

A guide may be obtained for 15S., and a horse for 7S. 6d. a day. The tariff at the hotel is 10s. a day The best time of the year for mountaineering is from November to the end of March. After returning to Timaru, the visitor can take the train to Dunedin, and thence visit the cold lakes and fjords of the south; or travel by the very interesting coaching tour direct from Pukaki to Pembroke Lake Wanaka) and thence to Queenstown Lake Wakatipu).

The illustrations of flowers in this Guide are taken from Miss Harris's "Flowers," "Ferns," and "Berries" of New Zealand published by Jackson, Nelsora at 10s. per volume.

Mount Cook, The Hermitage

Mount Cook, The Hermitage

Wheeler and son photo

page 105
University, Dunedin

University, Dunedin