THROUGH THE BULLER VALLEY
I first went into Westland from Christchurch by way of the Otira
Gorge: I left it for Wellington by way of the Buller Gorge and the
town of Nelson. For three days the return journey is the same--the
drive by coach to Ross and the railway to Greymouth: here, instead
of turning east to cross the mountains, you go on still by railway,
over the Grey River and into the province of Nelson as far as
Reefton, where at present the line ends, though it is gradually
being continued further north. Motor cars meet the train and take
passengers on for the remaining fifty miles between Reefton and
Westport, running for a great part of the journey through the
Buller Gorge, close to the Buller River.
It is a very fine river, from two to three chains wide, and a great
volume of brown water flows swiftly between high tree-covered
cliffs. There is very little room for the road, which in places
has been cut on the face of the cliff overhanging the river,
and now on the opposite side trees are being felled and the
beauty of the river injured to make a way for the new railroad.
There is a certain sameness in the scenery, beautiful though it
undoubtedly is--mile after mile of rounded hills of varying height,
all uniformly covered with luxuriant growth of pines, beeches,
fuchsias, veronicas and tree-ferns, and ever the brown river
flowing below.
Westport is the centre of the coal-mining industry--a small and
dreary town of wooden houses and straight streets, at the head of a
desolate plain backed by low forest-hills. It has a harbour at the
mouth of the Buller, and here I watched trucks being unloaded into
the hold of a small steamer. It was a most scientific unlading--the
crane hoisted up the loaded truck and kept it suspended over the
hold, then the bottom of the truck opened, and all the coal came
tumbling out exactly as it was wanted.
After one night at Westport, a motor coach took me back through
the Buller Gorge and on up the Buller Valley, until twenty-seven
miles from Westport it left me at a small hotel; here I had lunch,
and afterwards went on again in a coach drawn by four sleek and
well-groomed horses. All that afternoon we drove by the side of the
Buller River, and all the time the scenery was fine--high cliffs
and dense forests, and sometimes through a break in the cliffs
we saw a high distant mountain peak, white with freshly fallen
snow. The river-bed has been very rich in gold, and some is still
found, though the claims are now not worked very energetically; one
sluicing hose, that should have been at work tearing down the rock,
was aimlessly pouring water with great force back into the river.
It was the end of May and cold--as the driver sympathetically
remarked "too late in the season for the Buller." I was very glad
to see the first twenty miles, but after that, I wearied of forest
and cliff; there was too much scenery endlessly repeated, and I was
too cold to enjoy it.
The last few miles we drove in the dark, and finally came to a
little township in an open valley, and here stayed for the night.
This valley and the hills surrounding it are all being cleared for
grazing land, and up to the very tops of the hills are blackened
tree-trunks, while grass is springing up everywhere round the
half-burnt stumps.
For another ten miles beyond the little settlement the road still
follows the course of the Buller, which is now a narrow mountain
stream of dark green water, hurrying along between high wooded
banks, until at last--and I rejoiced in the change--it branches
off, and up another valley and over a low saddle to Glenhope,
another small settlement, where we again reach a railway and are
able to proceed by train to Nelson.
After travelling for two days through a wild and for the most part
uninhabited country, the town of Nelson and the smiling fertility
of the hollow in which it lies come as a complete and happy
surprise. All round Nelson the land is highly cultivated, with
hop-gardens and fruit orchards, and though the nearer hills have
lost their forest growth and are bare of all but grass, the town
itself is lavishly planted with many trees, the berberis hedges
were a mass of crimson leaf, and yellow cassias and wattles were
flowering, even in mid-winter.
Nelson is known in this land of sunshine as "Sunny Nelson," and
now that a private donor has generously given a site, there
is presently to be built here a Solar Observatory, from which
scientists may study the sun.
The town has eight thousand inhabitants, good hotels and shops,
and fine wide streets; a museum too, and public flower gardens.
On rising ground among the trees at the head of the main
street--Trafalgar Street--stands the Anglican Cathedral, of wood,
painted red; it has a shingle roof and tapering spire, and a broad
flight of white stone steps leads up to it: they are very handsome
steps, but look a little incongruous so close to the wooden walls.
There is a big jam factory at which fruit is tinned and a great
deal of excellent jam made: there is no temptation to adulterate
the jams, as fruit comes to the factory in greater quantity
than the makers can use--peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums,
strawberries or quinces--one of the men told me that quince jam
is the only kind they are ever asked to send to England: in New
Zealand, where quinces grow in such abundance that they are often
left to rot on the ground, it is a jam of little account.
In the main, Nelson is a delightful residential town, with good
schools and plenty of pleasant houses standing in pretty gardens.
Only a mile from the town is the port and the open sea, and by the
sand dunes of a wide bay cottages are being built by the people of
Nelson, and here they come and picnic, and enjoy sea bathing and
golf and wonderful views across the bay, of snowy mountains and
blue hills. The hills have as foreground a wide stretch of open
country, neither hilly nor flat, but crumpled into little ridges
running in all directions. This crumpled land is the district of
Moutere, and here it has recently been discovered that apples grow
better than they do anywhere else in the neighbourhood, so all who
have land there are turning it to account for apple orchards.
The great excitement of the place just then was the visit to the
port of H.M.S. "New Zealand."
Hundreds of people went aboard and were shown the ship and many
of her treasures--such as signed portraits of the King and Queen,
hanging on either side of a glass case containing presents given to
the ship--silver gilt cups, massive branched candlesticks and Maori
curios; portraits too of Dick Seddon and Sir Joseph Ward.
Officers and men were entertained in the town, and the sailors gave
exhibitions of naval drill and sports in a large paddock near the
port.
June 3rd, the King's birthday, is observed through the Dominion as
a general holiday.
It was winter certainly, but the sun shone and the air was mild,
and friends took me out picnicing. First we drove three miles in
an open carriage to a reservoir on the outskirts of the town, from
there a steep track took us into the bush, and by a trickling
stream we piled up sticks and boiled the billy, and then sat down
for tea on a mossy bank overlooking a wooded ravine. It was all
very pleasant and a little unexpected at that time of year, but
other picnic parties were doing the same.
From Nelson steamers run to Wellington.
Nelson is situated at the north of South Island, and Wellington
at the extreme southern point of North Island, but between the two
places lie many miles of coastline, and the voyage takes several
hours--from early morning until late at night, if as on the day
when I crossed Cook Strait, the steamer calls in at Picton.
Between Nelson and Picton the land shows a very curious geological
formation--a flat tableland cut through by deep gorges up which the
sea flows in long curving arms, and all the arms or "sounds" are
indented with numberless bays, large and small, and off the coast
and within the sounds are many rocky, tree-clad islands.
At the entrance to Pelorus Sound the boats have for many years been
met by a white dolphin--Pelorus Jack--who always escorted them up
to Picton. Jack was specially protected by Act of Parliament, but
for over a year nothing has been seen of him, and his old friends
fear that he is dead.
The steamer hugs the coast and you admire the high cliffs and
forests and the waterways that separate them. We turned up Queen
Charlotte Sound--a narrow entrance and then a long landlocked
harbour, up which it took two hours to steam. On either side were
high bush hills, cleared in places for grass; round us played a
large shoal of porpoises, the great creatures often jumping right
out of the water close to the ship, while all the time grey gulls
circled gracefully round and round.
At Picton we found H.M.S. "New Zealand" again on view, anchored
behind a small island at the head of the sound; the town was
crowded with people who had come to see her and join in the
festivities, and outside the Town Hall were decorations of
tree-ferns and feathery rimu branches.
That evening we had a calm and uneventful journey down the sound,
then suddenly as the ship entered Cook Strait, she lurched over,
and continued to roll and pitch for the next two hours.
I think most of the passengers were glad to be at peace and safely
berthed in Wellington Harbour.