30

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Wellington, 30th January, 1851.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR-IN-CHIEF has been pleased to direct the publication of the following letter from F. A. Weld, Esq., descriptive of a journey lately undertaken by him between Lyttelton and Cape Campbell.

By His Excellency’s command,

ALFRED DOMETT,
Colonial Secretary.

Wellington, January, 1851.

Sir,—By desire of His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, I have the honor of submitting to you an epitome of notes taken during a late journey, when I explored a route, by which Lyttelton, in the Canterbury district, may be easily reached from Mr. Tinlins’ station on the Awatere or Wakefield river within eight or ten days, by any tolerably good pedestrian or horseman. By it, stock of any kind may be safely driven in a proportionately short space of time, with the further advantage of the best of pasturage along the whole line of journey. There is enough firewood to supply the wants of travellers, and the only drawback is the necessity of crossing several rivers, which however I found less formidable than I had anticipated, and which I think will almost always be passable except at the period of the melting of the snows.

Within the course of last month I have seen the whole of the proposed route, and have traversed it all with the exception of about fifteen miles, which, however, present no obstacle, and which I viewed looking southwards from the high lands on the Waiau-toa or Clarence river, and northward from the plains of the Waiau-us.

I will endeavour to give a general idea of the country between the two settlements that the route connects, more particularly with a view to enable any person wishing to travel or to drive stock to follow my course by means of the directions I propose to lay down. To effect this it will be necessary occasionally to enter into details which, though of little interest to the general reader, must be forgiven by him, as they may prove of service to the traveller who, with blanket on his back or leading his jaded horse, anxiously looks out for some previously indicated landmark to assure him of the correctness of his reckoning.

The first part of my journey consisted in walking from Lyttelton to Flaxbourne (Cape Campbell), but as much of this route has before been travelled, and is partially known, I shall here confine myself to generalities.

I left Lyttelton on the 4th December, 1850, slowly journeying with a pleasant party across the great plains in a northerly direction. The Canterbury district has of late years been so often described and admired, that I need hardly add my felicitations to those more valuable ones which have been so often offered to the fortunate colonists who are to possess this vast expanse of unnumbered rich agricultural land, eminently adapted as it also is for cattle breeding, whilst it is bounded by downs that can hardly be surpassed for sheep stations, and which extend almost uninterruptedly from north to south of the island.

It was not till I crossed the Ashley, and left the Canterbury plain, that my travelling commenced in earnest. I had engaged a man named Charles Wilkinson to accompany me, and I can recommend him strongly to any one who may wish to travel the same road; he is an experienced bushman, and has a good eye to country.

The general character of the coast line of hills along which I travelled from Double Corner to Hurunui is bold and rounded, occasionally limestone, but oftener of clay, gravelly or sandstone formation: at the Double Corner itself the rocks are formed of masses of conglomerate shells, chiefly of the oyster, mussel, and other modern species, with some amongst them closely resembling the fossil ammonites found on the English Dorsetshire coast.

The vegetation throughout this district is exceedingly rich, and though in places rather rough, and not capable at present of being very heavily stocked, it is generally a clean woolgrowing country; and as there is a great variety of herbs and grasses apparently little affected by the seasons, I have no doubt as to its capabilities for fattening also.

The Waipara plain lies within these seaward downs, and both it, and as I am informed by Mr. Caverhill of Motunau (to whom I am indebted for much information, assistance, and hospitality), the plains and downs stretching beyond it into the interior, and northwards as far as the Kaikora block, are solely covered with grass, affording excellent grazing, whilst; being almost free from swamp, they present no impediment to the traveller, who may traverse them in all directions.

The river Hurunui, though easily fordable in the summer months, is evidently dangerous at many seasons of the year, the more so as it suddenly deepens at its banks; the track of downs and vallies between this river and the Waiau-us, now in the occupation of Mr. Caverhill as a heifer station, is the finest and richest cattle run I have seen in either island, and the greater part of it is not inferior for sheep farming.

It was early in the morning of 12th December that, rising from our camping place on the south side of the Waiau-us plain, about six or eight miles from the sea (from which it also is separated by a line of coast hills parallel to our route), we forded the river somewhat above its junction with the Tuehuka, which enters it from the northward. This Waiau-us or 'female Waiau,' and Waiau-toa or male Waiau,' of which I shall speak hereafter, are the two worst rivers between Canterbury and the Wairau. The river was very low when we crossed it, and I do not think that I should have then found much difficulty in doing so on foot, but I should recommend pedestrians to be careful in making the attempt. A beautiful grassy plain now lay before us, and as we travelled it I remarked to my companion that the Tushuka pierced the inland range of downs, and flowing from the north evidently arose near the head of the Awatere; there also appeared a kind of opening in the chain of inland mountains in that direction, and we regretted that our small stock of provisions would not allow us to attempt to penetrate behind the Kaikoras, instead of following the coast line. A few hours walking now brought us into a different style of country from that which we had hitherto traversed; the downs before us began to rise in height as they approached the seaward Kaikoras, or “Lookers on”—the grass land gave place to a mixture of bushes, grass, and scrub,—the frequent patches of black birch on the sides of the hills told of inferior soil and a greater height above the sea level; and when we diverged to the right, and following the ridge of a hill along the worn channel of a deserted native path, famous in the wars of old, descended into the Tutaiputuputu, we had bidden farewell to the prairies of the South, and were evidently journeying amongst the offspurs of the Kaikoras; passing some pine groves, and walking in the wide shingly channel of the river, we reached the sea side, and night overtook us, as after witnessing a glorious sunset from Amuri bluff, we descended through flowering and fragrant bushes