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| Up the head of the valley on Matukituki River, Wanaka N.Z beneath glaciers and Mount Aspiring - jet boating 2016 Photo courtesy Chris Ball |
We do not inherit the land from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our
children.
Native American Proverb
There is something about mountains and their valley's below that draw us to their peace. For long mountains have drawn people to climb, to hike, to tramp, to ski, to walk In the valleys below, to work and to admire their grandeur.
My father was a Honorary Ranger NZ Forest Services, Coromandel. All of his life, Jack Stewart climbed the mountains of the South Island along with those also, of the North Island, New Zealand. On the Coromandel Peninsula Jack instigated the start of the Whangamata Tramping Club along with Chris Russell. During that time he and Chook Sutton re-established the old gold mining track from the back of Waihi to Parakiwai - Te Wharekirauponga. Track. Jack and Chook Sutton were those fore runners of support for the Coromandel Forest Park during the 1960's and 1970's.
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| Bridge on Parakiwai- Te Wharekirauponga Track, Coromandel Peninsula, NZ- photo 2009 courtesy Chris Ball |
Track maintenance, building huts and re finding old trails in the North and South Islands were the norm for many back then as climbing and tramping were growing in popularity. Volunteers over many many years have been relied on for track re-establishment and track maintenance. Maori and early European had forged and followed many of the trails that evolved, usually for purposes of easiest access through what were sometimes forbidding New Zealand mountains and bush.
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| Rakaia Gorge, South Island, New Zealand- photo by JM Stewart 1960's to 1970's A close friend of my mother and father and originally from Whangamata, New Zealand, also was drawn to the mountains and valleys all of her life - Beverley Williamson - who also belonged to the New Zealand Alpine Sports Club - climbing and tramping the South Island As with my father, favorites were also the tramping tracks of the Coromandel Peninsula of New Zealand. Before her death in 2008, Beverley Williamson had been on the committee of the New Zealand Alpine Sports Club and the Coromandel Forest Park Advisory Committee. 
A view of the Pinnacles from Morrison's Road on the Tairua Valley side-photo 2015 courtesy Chris Ball
For those tramping and climbing fraternity of the 1930's through to the 1960's and 1970's drawn to the mountains and valleys, photography was often the means of expressing the grandeur of the stunning scenery. Jack Stewart on a climbing expedition to the South Island in 1938, was to record the scenery in black and white photos - a common median then. 
Godley Valley, South Island, New Zealand 1938 - JM Stewart photo
Chris Ball has followed photography of back country New Zealand on from the previous generation. He also was part of tramping track maintenance in Chook Sutton's Wednesday group, which continued to keep the Te Wharekirauponga Track maintained, amongst others in the Waihi- Whangamata area - the next generation. Typical of the many volunteers in tramping group circles and conservation groups.
In the hills at the back of Tairua, Coromandel Peninsula NZ - photo 2012 Chris Ball
Back in early European settler history tracks and trails were followed over the Alps of the South Island and mountain range of the North Island. Those early European explorers, surveyors and civil engineers had no roads to follow then. December 1858 saw the Austrian naval frigate Novara arrive in Auckland. Aboard was geologist Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand von Hochstetter, part of a scientific expedition. von Hochstetter wrote in 1867 that this expedition was:- "fitted out under the orders of His Imperial Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian for a voyage round the world" ( Hochstetter, 1867, piii) Also arrived to New Zealand, aboard the Evening Star in December 1858, was explorer Julius von Haast, who had also studied at university, geology and minerology. During 1859, von Hochstetter, accompanied by others, including von Haast, made expeditions through lower and eastern of the, then, Auckland Province and Nelson. Von Hochstetter's book published in 1867 was accompanied by descriptions of the routes and maps. Including that of mountains Tongariro, Ngaruahoe and Ruapehu towering over Lake Taupo - three highest mountains if the North Island. 
Mount Ruapehu from Napier- Taupo Highway February 2017 - photo Chris Ball
Hochstetter's expeditions also included a survey of Lake Rotomahana, commenting on the long time formation of the beautiful Te Otukapuarangi ( the Pink Terrace ) and Te Tarata ( the White Terrace). Hochstetter saw these terraces, regarded as an eighth wonder of the world before the eruption of Mount Tarawera which burst forth on 10 June 1886 
Te Tarata ( the White Terrace) and Lake Rotomahana No 15 George Valentine photo - JM Stewart collection
Hochstetter's party continued on to Tauranga and over Kaimai Ranges via Wairere Falls, gaining some stunning views of the Waikato basin as they descended. Then the land of the Waikato Basin was not the farmland we see in 2017 but extensive swamp especially between Matamata and Te Aroha. With the Waihou, Piako and Waitoa Rivers ( Waitoa converging with the Piako River in the Kopuatai Peat Dome wetland AKA swamp area ) winding across the plains to the sea in the Hauraki Gulf. 
Wairere Falls in the Kaimai on Wairere Track which Hochstetter and party traversed in 1859 - photo courtesy Chris Ball 2009
Looking across the farmland of the Waikato Basin from the Wairere Track - Hochstetter saw swamp in 1859 - photo courtesy Chris Ball 2009
Following Hochstetter's Auckland Provincial expedition it was down to the Nelson area - Hochstetter accompanied again by Haast.
Tukurua Beach, Golden Bay, Nelson looking towards the ranges - Photo J M Stewart 1970s
Haast stayed on in
New Zealand continuing his explorations of the Nelson and Marlborough Provinces , including the
Wairau River and Awatere Valley. Where the McRae family settled on the station, George McRae named Blairich. McRae later also had
Braes of Sutherland station, along with Alexander Mowat on Altimarlock Station in the valley.
Lake Rotoiti, Nelson Lakes Area near St. Arnaud - photo Chris Ball 2010
George McRae's son Nehemiah McRae with a party of three is said to have made the first European ascent of Mount Mount Tapuaenuku ( now Tapuae-o-Uenuku) summit in April 1864. There had been an attempt in 1849 by Europeans Eyre and Hamilton who did not make it to the summit. McRae's party recorded their successful ascent by leaving a note in a jar under a cairn.
Mount Tapuenuku ( now Tapuae-o-Uenuku) is said to be in the Inland Kaikoura Ranges, the highest peak in New Zealand outside of the Southern Alps and is the sacred mountain of the Kurahaupo tribes of Marlborough.
Mountains of the Kaikoura Ranges - photo Chris Ball 2010
Haast
teaming up with surveyor Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson ( also brother-in-law of
Haast ) made expeditions to the McKenzie Basin and beginning surveys of the
Mount Cook region in 1862. Later he also
reported on Westland.
Looking across Lake Pukaki toward Southern Alps and Mount Aoraki ( Mount Cook) - photo courtesy
Chris Ball 2016
During the 1880s,others were drawn to the alps of New Zealand. Amongst them came William Spotswood Green, a friend of Haast was to do some climbing and sketching. Green, a member of the English Alpine Club, published a book - The High Alps of New Zealand - in 1883 which detailed his trip to the South Island of New Zealand, its glaciers an ascent of Mount Aoraki ( then named Mount Cook). Although Green did not reach the summit he was to write in 1883:-
"Though Mount Cook has the special honour of
being the highest peak in Australasia, there are many other peaks in the
Southern Alps which may be more difficult, quite as well worth climbing, and
whose topographical details are yet unknown to the world." ( Green,
1883,p348)
 William Spotswood Green, M.A. 1883. The High Alps of New Zealand. London: MacMillan and Co.
By 1891 the New Zealand Alpine Sports Club had been formed and was one of the fore runners of many clubs and organisations whose members enjoyed climbing, tramping, hiking, skiing in the stunning New Zealand scenery.
Sir Prof. Ronald Macmillan Algie ( a former Minister of Education, NZ) was founding President of the Alpine Sports Club ( ASC) 1929. Alpine Sports Clubs has grown to be the second largest tramping and skiing club in the country with over 500 members. Am sure Algie would be pleased to see the growth if alive today.( born in Wyndham South Island, with his father a Postmaster at Paeroa, a pupil at Thames Highschool and a brother, Colvin Stewart Algie killed in action at Somme WW1 and 6th Hauraki - the boys would have enjoyed the hills of Kaimai and Coromandel that Hochstetter saw)
At times the beauty,
grandeur and sheer starkness of the New Zealand scenery , has been such to
some, that they have been inspired to write a poem about the mountains, the
valleys, the rivers of the valleys. A poem about the flora and fauna in these
places. Many of these poems appeared
over a number of years in local and national newspapers. One of these in the Press in 1905 - "
Song of the Canterbury Rivers"
This poem by Johannes C Anderson
poet, writer and first librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library in
1919 had appeared in the English Illustrated Magazine ( Volume XXXIII. April -
September 1905 p556, p557)
 
Anderson,
Johannes C. 1905. "The English Illustrated Magazine." Haithi Trust
Digital Library. Accessed November 6, 2017. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000045946.
Songs proved popular with all the climbing and tramping clubs. By the time I had grown to adulthood, there were many I had learned through camping, tramping and from those visiting our home - all sung with great gusto. W. S Gilkison - a well known climber and mountaineer, included several songs in his book " Peaks, Packs and Mountain Tracks. Auckland"- one of them:-
From Songs of the Hills
Air; "Robbers'
Chorus"
We've come from far across the land,
We've come to see
the mountains grand,
With strength and
skill we'll climb the hill
And fight for the
goals we've planned:
And soon we'll climb
the mountains high,
We'll try to climb
towards the sky,
O'er ice and snow
we'll surely go,
We'll climb or know
the reason why………….
In W. Scott Gilkison, Peaks, packs and mountain
tracks. Auckland: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1940
 Highest mountain of them all in NZ, Aoraki ( Cook) - photo JM Stewart early 1970's In some areas of back country New Zealand, it was hard to access until this century and no phone access back in the 1980's. Apart from photographs, some resorted to writing or poems to share the beauty and grandeur of Dusky Sound, deep in Fiordland. 
Serenity - Dusky Sounds 1984 - photo JM Stewart
Resolution Island
Written Dusky 1985
Through the secrets,
of cloud and mist,
Mighty shapes, rise
from the sea.
Awe-inspiring and
majestic,
A part of Dusky,
deemed to be.
But what stories,
could be told,
By these glorious,
hills of old.
Where once, was
heard, the call of Kakapo song,
And the bark of
seals, in a mighty throng.
ASB
Reference Source:
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