Ascent of the Waimakiriri - Crossing the River - Gorge - Ascent of the
Rangitata - View of M'Kenzie Plains - M'Kenzie - Mount Cook - Ascent of the
Hurunui - Col leading to West Coast.
Since my last, I have made another expedition into the back country, in
the hope of finding some little run which had been overlooked. I have
been unsuccessful, as indeed I was likely to be: still I had a pleasant
excursion, and have seen many more glaciers, and much finer ones than on
my last trip. This time I went up the Waimakiriri by myself, and found
that we had been fully right in our supposition that the Rakaia saddles
would only lead on to that river. The main features were precisely
similar to those on the Rakaia, save that the valley was broader, the
river longer, and the mountains very much higher. I had to cross the
Waimakiriri just after a fresh, when the water was thick, and I assure
you I did not like it. I crossed it first on the plains, where it flows
between two very high terraces, which are from half a mile to a mile
apart, and of which the most northern must be, I should think, 300 feet
high. It was so steep, and so covered with stones towards the base, and
so broken with strips of shingle that had fallen over the grass, that it
took me a full hour to lead my horse from the top to the bottom. I dare
say my clumsiness was partly in fault; but certainly in Switzerland I
never saw a horse taken down so nasty a place:
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