Alpine pass to the heart
Date: 17 Aug 2002, The Press, Christchurch, page D12
Caption: Beyond the road through Arthurs Pass Village, hub of the Alps, lies a world of towering crags, forest, waterfall, and meadow.

Stepping out from Arthurs Pass Branching off SH73 as it passes through Arthurs Pass Village and subalpine zone are many short walks and day tramps, all signposted and marked along the routes. Visit Arthurs Pass National Park Visitor Centre and museum for track and weather information, the intentions register for search and rescue operations, and for interest. Some highlights: Devil's Punchbowl, Bridal Veil Falls: These spectacular cascades are set among beech forest and rocky bluffs. Well-formed tracks ascend right to the plummeting water curtain of water. Time: About 1hr each. Grading: Easy. Bealey Chasm and Valley: A small rock gorge in the Bealey River, a few minutes walk through beech forest and an easy ascent through bush and subalpine vegetation to the riverbed, to end under the sheer Bealey Face of Mount Rolleston. Avalanche risk winter, spring. Temple Basin Skifield: Walk-in only. Superb panoramas, alpine meadows, waterfalls. Time: car-park to ski-field lodges, 1-2hrs. Lodges to Temple Col, 1-2hrs. Grading: Moderate. Ice axe and crampons needed for the col in winter. Otira Valley Track: Outstanding alpine garden short walk, especially in late spring, early summer when Mount Cook lilies flower. Takes up to two hours to reach the valley head where Mount Rolleston towers above. Needs experience, fitness, equipment, and favourable weather. Views of Otira Gorge and highway. Avalanche hazard in winter.

Arthurs Pass is a wonderful alpine village set amidst the rugged grandeur of the Southern Alps in the heart of Arthurs Pass National Park. Here, man's footprint on the land is insignificant against the vastness of the South Island's hinterland.

A tortuous strip of bitumen links "The Pass" to Christchurch and Greymouth. It dates back to 1865 when a dray track was carved out of the Otira precipices by a thousand men wielding axes, picks, crowbars, wheelbarrows, and explosives in the bitter winter of that year.

It was a remarkable feat for the young colony of New Zealand both in terms of engineering and completion time: 160km of road in appalling conditions in just under a year.

The pass's namesake, Arthur Dudley Dobson, discovered this new route to the West Coast goldfields in the summer of 1864 when intense pressure was on for a more expedient route than the longer Harper Pass at the head of the Taramakau River. Dobson had learned of the route from Westland Maori who had occasionally used it on their greenstone foraging trips.

The roading contractor, J. Smith, set up a camp at Camping Flat, the site of the present village, to enable his men to complete the project, and it was this and the subsequent Midland Rail route and Otira Tunnel contract that set the foundations for the small hamlet that has survived into the 21st century.

Arthurs Pass has lost none of its simple alpine charm, and with the present national focus on promoting tourism, it is refreshing to discover that this small hamlet, of approximately 50 permanent inhabitants, remains an unsophisticated mountain retreat where those who enjoy some of life's simpler pleasures, such as walking and botanising, can wander without the disruption and glitter of tourist amenities.

The three small coffee houses cum restaurants situated on the main highway are greatly outnumbered by the various basic cottages owned by locals and transient visitors from both the east and west coasts. Lording over all are the great dark forests and sheer- sided peaks of the pass.

It seems that everythi ng here is vertical. Few real tourist walks are available, but the most notable are to the Devil's Punchbowl and Bridal Veil Falls, and into the fearsomely named Bealey Chasm. These short, well-maintained tracks can be completed in a morning or afternoon's stroll.

But for the more adventurous visitor there is excitement and endeavour waiting at the road's edge. Here numerous alpine tracks scale the valley walls, at an unrelenting gradient, direct to the alpine grasslands and snowy summits unseen above the village.

Tracks with names like Avalanche Peak, Con's Track, Mount Aicken, and Rome Ridge will spirit the energetic into bright alpine gardens, waterfalls, and snowfields where the view and challenge is limited only by the weather, conditions, and your ability.

There are return trips, round trips, and ridge trips where the tramper can really test his or her mettle on rickety crests far above the defile of the valley, where kea call from distant crags and the mountain winds sigh over the landscape.

Beware, though, there is real and present danger here: wind and cloud.

Nor'west gales pummel these tops with a frequency and ferocity unsuspected by the casual visitor, and often arrive with little advance warning, trapping the unwary in a scorching gale and swathing the peaks in a sea of cloud.

Heed the weather forecast (posted at the DOC Visitor Centre) and signs of change if you venture aloft and be prepared to make a hurried descent back to the shelter of the bush. There is always another day.

At Arthurs Pass summit an easy flat nature walk traverses the alpine bogland that sits astride the pass, and here less adventurous walkers can obtain a satisfying glimpse of the tops and experience the cool, changing nature of the alpine environment.

Arthurs Pass has a place in the heart of many trampers and walkers; simple yet secure in its setting beneath the peaks.