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blocks of rock, that at first sight threaten
to obstruct the river’s course, and picturesque patches of black birch that hang
about their sides, presents no real impediment to the traveller or drover. A few
blows with the tomahawk, a fire-stick
judiciously employed, and should the
brook be high, a little sidling over a low
bank or two, is the most that can be needed,
though the gorge being very narrow, its
aspect may at first appear discouraging for
a mile or two. (Course E.)

After receiving two tributaries from the
eastern mountains, the gorge opens, and
another two miles (course S. by W.) will
bring the traveller into Tarndale.

I gave the name of Tarndale to the valley immediately south of the great barrier
of mountains, so unexpectedly penetrated by the East Wairau. It is situated
between the valleys of the Acheron and
Clarence; its northern extremity, about
two miles broad, rests upon that block of
rugged and inaccessible mountains, which
stretching westward from Mitchell and
Dashwoods’ Waihopi and Acheron Pass,
is penetrated, as I have already described,
by the upper Wairau. The hills around
Tarndale are generally grassy, the highest
being bare-topped and shingly, especially
on the south and west sides.

The valley itself averages a mile and a
half broad, by eight or ten miles long,
stretching nearly north and south, with an
easterly inclination in the centre, and contains much rich cattle pasture.

It appears to have no timber, excepting
some black birch on the mountain-side,
at its N.W. extremity, near the Wairau
gorge.

But the most remarkable feature of Tarndale is undoubtedly the little lakes, or
“Tarns,” from which I derived its name.
They are six or seven in number, not
all visible at once, but lie scattered,
amongst low undulations of land, at the
north end of the valley. Two or three of
the largest contain an area of about 80 acres,
circled round by smooth banks, free from
sedge or bulrush; their waters clear and
pure, and reflecting the mountains around;
their surface only broken by the evolutions
of fleets of grey ducks, teal and widgeon,
that had here their hitherto undisturbed
abode. I had expected to have found
the source of the Wairau in one of these
pools, but it was not so. Issuing in its
fills west of the valley, just enters its
north-west extremity, passes close by one
of the pools, and, turning to the northward, cuts boldly through the heart of the
mountains.

From the pools at the north-east corner
of the valley (Tapuaenuku, bearing E.
N.E.), a branch of the Acheron rises, and,
after flowing for rather more than three
miles E.N.E., through a narrow valley,
and two miles east in more open country,
it receives a considerable branch from the
rocky mountains from the N.W., and soon
afterwards a branch from the S.W., which
formed of two streams, one rising in a
pool in the centre of Tamdale, and one in
its S.W. extremity, join and flow out of
it four or five miles south of the stream we
had followed).

We arrived at the comparatively open
country I have just mentioned, and which
I believe to be the “Dashwood Plains”
of Captain Mitchell’s journal, at noon, on
Saturday, March 31st, having spent the
preceding day exploring and camping at
the N.E. “Tarns.”

We had observed a column of smoke,
arising from a conical peak, in answer to
our fires of last night, and we now met
Mr. M’Cabe, who had reached the pre-concerted camping-place on the Acheron
the preceding day.

Traversing considerable flats with isolated
downs to our left and higher grassy hills
to our right, we proceeded, first E.S.E.,
and then S. E., till we reached the main
stream of the Acheron, a distance of about
two and a half miles skirting on our left
(N.), at the junction, a small isolated hill,
whose grassy surface is broken by innumerable small points of volcanic rock,
and followed its course to the camp, where
we spent the next day (Sunday, April 1st).

I had now established the required
communication between the “Top House”
and the usual route to Canterbury, by a
line of perfectly level country: nevertheless, as the latter part deflected slightly to
the eastward of the direct course, and as
Tarndale was probably by a few miles
nearer to the Clarence than to the Acheron,
I was resolved to make the most of the
fine weather with which I was favoured,
by exploring the sources of that river.

In pursuance of this resolution, we proceeded down the Acheron.

Rather more than five miles (during
which the horses crossed the river twice,
and we passed one stream from the W.)
brought us to the “Guide” below “Barrett’s”,
and we then followed the ordinary
route to the junction of the Acheron with
the Clarence (Wairau) at Tophouse.

Here, Mr. A. Clifford and I spent a day
chiefly in walking down the valley below
the confluence.

The course of the river is from W. to E.