A climber in New Zealand

_Terra Incognita_—An Experiment in Acclimatization—The Volcanic Mountains—The Thermal Region—Volcano of Ngauruhoe—The Southern Alps described—Physical and Economic Aspects—Influ...

Across the Mackenzie Plains—The Alpine Lakes—The Cuisine _en route_—A Jehu in a Rage—The Old Hermitage—A Passing Storm—Provisioning a Camp—A Huge Moraine—Sub-Alpine Vegetation—A...

First Sight of the Hochstetter Ice Fall—An Alpine Panorama—Bad Weather—The Musings of a Lady Mountaineer—A Storm in Camp—An Acrobatic Feat—Return to the Hermitage—A Scramble on...

We arrange an Expedition—The Difficulties of Transport—Quicksands in the Tasman River—The Manufacture of Ski—Flight of our Porter—The Climb to the Bivouac Rock—Difficulties with...

The Joys of High Bivouacking—Caught in a Storm—Thunder and Lightning—We lower the Tent—A Cold Repast—Retreat—We lose our Swags—New Fashions at the Old Hut—Other Arrivals—A Cook...

Another Attack—Digging out the Frozen Tent—Camp on the Plateau—Finding a New Route—Blocked by a Wall of Rock—Some Acrobatic Performances—Defeat once more—Finding the Lost Swags—...

Green’s Route abandoned—Fyfe and Graham explore the Hooker Side—Camp on the Ice—Serious Work at a Schrund—A Long Couloir—Green’s Saddle gained—Difficult Rock-Work—Success at Las...

The Tararua Range—A Mountain Railway—Our Unknown Host—The Charm of High Places—Through the Beech Forest—Insects and Birds—Mr. and Mrs. Kohoperoa—A Botanist’s Paradise—The Old an...

The Valley of the Mueller—A Trying Moraine—Our _al fresco_ Camp—A Bivouac Dream—Retreat in the Rain—In the Valley of the Tasman—Reflections on being one’s own Porter—The Curious...

A Glacier Tramp—The Penguin Rocks—A Fairyland Grotto—Second Breakfast and some Reflections—Rock Avalanches—Beautiful Schrunds—A Sharp Arête—Scaling a Precipice—Zurbriggen’s Axe—...

Mount De la Bêche—Early Attempts—An Historic Bivouac—Heroic Pluck and Endurance—View down the Valley—Reflections under a Rock—Caught in the Mist—Provisions run low—Moraines by C...

We decide to make a New Pass—Bivouac at Malte Brun—A Start by Moonlight—Early Morning on the Glacier—Dawn on the Pass—Rotten Rock and Broken Ice—Some Difficult Climbing—An Ice F...

An Uncomfortable Bivouac and a Frugal Meal—We start down the Valley—Through the Virgin Forest—Grandeur of the Scenery—An Interesting Discovery—Blocked by Gorges—A Veritable Fair...

An Adventure in the River—Dripping Mountaineers—The Sand-Flies have an Innings—On Short Commons—Wild Cattle in the Forest—Footprints on the Sands—Down the Broad Valley—A Habitat...

Early Expeditions—A Lost Explorer—The Aborigines—The Great Lakes—Primitive Navigation—The Grandeur of Te Anau—Over MacKinnon’s Pass—Views from the Summit—Mount Balloon in Danger...

Some Unexplored Country—Discovery of New Glaciers—Camp on an Old Moraine—The Birds of Kiwi Land—A Spotless Glacier—Strange Bergschrunds—Difficult Step-Cutting—Ice-Glazed Rocks—A...

Testing a Leg—A Moonlight Ride—We start for the Traverse—Avalanches—The Rolling Mists—The Commissariat—The Plateau by Moonlight—Schrunds in the Dusk—A 3000-Feet Slope—On the Mai...

On the Summit of Aorangi—We commence the Descent—An Ice-Glazed Rock Arête—Suspended over a Precipice—A Sloping Chimney—An Ungraceful Descent—Graham loses his Hat—A Cold Wind—Dow...

Wandering through an English village, not so many years ago, a friend chanced upon a dame’s school in which New Zealand was being described as “some small islands off the coast...

“The bed was made, the room was fit, By punctual eve the stars were lit; The air was still, the water ran; No need was there for maid or man, When we put up, my wife and I, At G...

“We walked in the great hall of life, looking up and around reverentially. Nothing was despicable—all was meaning-full; nothing was small, but as part of a whole whose beginning...

Green’s memorable visit in 1882, in company with two Swiss climbers, Emil Boss and Ulrich Kaufmann, fired the enthusiasm of a number of young New Zealanders, who hoped to succee...

A high bivouac in the Southern Alps, across which sweep the great summer ocean air currents, may, at any time, and without much warning, lend a spice of adventure to a big climb...

“Ah me! it was a toilsome hill, With storms as black as night, Yet up its slopes of gleaming white That little band of men Went climbing up, and up, until— They just climbed dow...

“At length, upon a sunny day, They started off once more, And climbed as they had climbed before, Till, all their troubles past, With scarce a halt upon their way, They reached...

In the southern corner of the North Island, westward of the Wairarapa plains, there rises a mountain mass, of considerable height and boldness of formation, known as the Tararua...

“I know a vale where I would go one day, Where snows gleam bright above the vast moraine, A mighty cleft in the great bosoming hills, A great grey gateway to the mountains’ heart.”

“Swinging there over the world, and not high enough to get a hold on heaven, it makes you feel as if things was droppin’ away from you like.”—GILBERT PARKER.

“A man may feel thankful, heartily thankful, over a dish of plain mutton with turnips, and have no leisure to reflect upon the ordinance and institution of eating; when he shall...

In the days when we first visited the Mount Cook region we thought De la Bêche would be an easy mountain to climb. But our youthful eagerness and inexperience led us into some d...

“A wretched invention, forsooth, for people who wish to push on is ‘a line of retreat,’ an everlasting inducement to look behind, when they should have enough to do in looking a...

“Good Luck is the gayest of all gay girls, Long in one place she will not stay, Back from your brow she brushes the curls, Kisses you quick, then runs away.

When dawn came, Fyfe was still tossing restlessly in his sleeping bag. We got up at 5 a.m., and partially undressed for the crossing of the river. We got over the first branch w...

“A land of streams! Some, like a downward smoke, Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go; And some thro’ wavering lights and shadows broke, Rolling a slumbrous sheet of foa...

The time had now arrived for us, on this journey, to do a little climbing and some real exploration, so one morning early in May, and much too late in the season, Fyfe, Hodgkins...

“From depth to height, from height to loftier height The climber sets his foot and sets his face, Tracks lingering sunbeams to their resting-place, And counts the last pulsation...

During the next seven days my ankle mended slowly, and a biologist—the nearest approach to a doctor within ninety miles—expressed the opinion that there was a splinter off the b...

We spent altogether twenty-five minutes on the summit of the mountain—12,349 feet above the sea. The views were certainly grand and very beautiful, but not so fine as from betwe...