✨ Journey Report Conclusion
34
with their trunks: I consider it almost without exception, the handsomest shrub I have ever seen: I noticed one tree twenty feet high, with a trunk a foot and a-half in diameter, growing by a brook side on Fairfield Downs; it is also found, though smaller in size, on the Awatere, about Mr. Kettle's run; also several veronicas of great beauty, wild thyme, dwarf yew, Alpine rose (corrosive thymifolia), white violet, a-sibes, several heaths, gentianella, harebell, a lily, and several varieties of ranunculus. I enclose aumerate a great many more curious plants and flowers (some with the richest scent), but I am unfortunately not sufficiently versed in botany accurately to describe them: they abjectly grow about the passes at the sources of the Awatere.
With regard to climate in those elevated valleys, it may be almost needless for me to say, that though on our first leaving the lowlands we luxuriated in the midday bath and siesta, we soon found ourselves in a very different temperature; the nights especially were very cold; and on Christmas night throughout on which we lay was white with a hoar frost. I have already made a few meteorological observations on the nature of the rocks which we encountered on our route; I will only add that the channel of the lower part of the Awatere, where it is fed from the high-land parts of the Kaikouras, is filled with masses of granite and porphyry: also, it may be interesting to note that the white limestone of Flaxbourne and Aorere appears again in a low stream at the back of the Kaikouras in the river bed at Fairfield Downs.
I will now, Sir, bring this imperfect sketch to a conclusion: A glance at the map will show that (especially should the Waiopai pass to the Awatere prove practicable) the route I have endeavoured to describe will be almost a direct line between Nelson and Lyttelton. I regret that I have not had the opportunity of comparing my journal with that of Messrs. Dasbwood and Mitchell, whose route to the westward of mine was separated from it by a high and generally snow-capped range of hills. Should any thing I have discovered aid in furthering the great object of overland communication between the two settlements, in promoting which those gentlemen took the lead, and encouraged many difficulties and hardships, the earnest wish will have been gratified of,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
F. A. Weld.
P.S.—I have prepared a sketch map of the route, and shall forward a copy to Mr. Godley at Lyttelton, and to Major Richmond at Nelson, who will, I have no doubt, allow any intending traveller to inspect it. —F. A. W.
Printed at the Spectator Office.
New Munster Gazette 1851, No 5
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
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Continuation of F. A. Weld's Journey Report
(continued from previous page)
🏛️ Governance & Central AdministrationExploration, Journey, Awatere, Kaikoura, Report
6 names identified
- F. A. Weld, Author of journey report
- Kettle, Run mentioned in report
- Dasbwood, Comparative journey mentioned
- Mitchell, Comparative journey mentioned
- Godley, Recipient of sketch map
- Richmond (Major), Recipient of sketch map