Through South Westland : A journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring New Zealand . rther, and then into anarrow defile where the rock walls shut us in, andthe track was choked with scrub and this we forced our way round an elbowin the gully, and saw a slight track rising over theshoulder of a shaley hill. We literally draggedourselves and the horses up, and after a wearyclimb reached a summit, only to find it fellaway in barren rocks to another nightmare of agully, and behind us the one we had left appearedto become absolutely impassable. We turned upa spur to the left, and here w
Through South Westland : A journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring New Zealand . rther, and then into anarrow defile where the rock walls shut us in, andthe track was choked with scrub and this we forced our way round an elbowin the gully, and saw a slight track rising over theshoulder of a shaley hill. We literally draggedourselves and the horses up, and after a wearyclimb reached a summit, only to find it fellaway in barren rocks to another nightmare of agully, and behind us the one we had left appearedto become absolutely impassable. We turned upa spur to the left, and here we had to drag thehorses up bare rock, the wise beasts coming alongand making no fuss, and at last we came to a placewhere no four-footed beast with shoes might go,where, indeed, only a mountaineer could haveclimbed down. There was nothing for it but areturn to the horrid gully, and from the heightwhereon we stood it seemed almost one wish was to get away from these dreadfulhills and to get back to the inn, for it was eightoclock, and we were not half-way A CORNER OF HAWEA LAKE. DEAD MANS GULLY. 139 The sudden dark fell as we rode, and we had totrust the horses to get us back, which they didabout 10 Everyone was in bed ; we turned the horsesloose, and then tapped at the window, and soon thekind couple were fussing about, getting us supperand explahiing we should not have turned downDead Mans GuUy at all, but climbed the steephills to the left and kept high all the time. Next da}- we started by nine, and this time gainedthe summit of the range. It was very steep, sosteep we had to climb beside the horses or evenbehind them ; but what a view broke upon usfrom the top. Before us lay two arms of LakeWanaka, embracing as it were a group of craggymountains patched with snow ; it was the deepestblue I have ever seen in water—ultramarine, witha dash of indigo. From the end of one arm issueda blue river, the Clutha, which wound in greatloops and curves throu
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