A DAY IN THE BUSH
DR. HILL AT WAINUI – FOREST AT ITS BEST – A HAPPY OUTING
If Dr. Hill, Director of Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, enjoyed his day at Wainui as much as those who went with him at the invitation of the Mayor, then he enjoyed himself very well indeed. It had been laid down that there were to be no speeches whatever at Wainui, but Dr. Hill himself broke the rule, thanking Mr. Troup for the splendid and particularly interesting outing.
It was a perfect day of brilliant sunshine with only the lightest of breezes stirring the bush, a day so good as to be specially remembered. In previous years the Mayor and councillors and their wives and friends have made an annual affair of the visit to Wainui—not the Wainui below the reservoirs but to the wonderful bush beyond the Morton Dam, leading up to the mouth of the Orongorongo tunnel.
There has been no visit during the past two or three years, but it was arranged that Dr. Hill and others keenly interested in horticulture and native plant life should pay a visit, and the councillors’ outing followed that arrangement. Those attending included Mr. H. Guthrie Smith, Mr. A. Cockayne, Sir Frederick Chapman, Mr. W. H. Field, M.P., Mr. D. Tannock of Dunedin, Mr. J. A. Campbell, Director of Horticulture, Mr. L. M. Ellis, Director of State Forest Service, Mr. E. Phillips Turner, Mr. Elsdon Best, officers of the Forestry and Agricultural Departments, and of the Institute of Horticulture and the City Council.
The party arrived at the bush near George’s Creek shortly after 10 o’clock, and Mr. Hill set out at once up the old bush track, which was used before the tunnel was driven through the ridge, examining tree growth, fern, and undergrowth as he went. He was in good climbing company (Mr. Field, for instance, who remarked at the start that the one real use he had for a hill track was to get to the top of it), but the top of that track is 3000 feet up and was a long way off when a return had to be made for luncheon.
Back at the cars again, Dr. Hill and the party went through the fern banks and reckoned up facts about 2000-year-old forest trees (the party did, at any rate). A very fine rata with the strangled supporting tree showing through the massive divided trunk was examined and admired. This rata is but one of very many in this magnificent bush area, and the rata just one of many varieties of splendid trees. It is a great pity that this land cannot be made available to the public, for there is nothing finer within many miles, but this is a water catchment area, and the rule against picnicking, even walking through, has very few exceptions.
THROUGH THE TUNNEL
Dr. Hill’s day included other functions, and he had to return to Wellington soon after luncheon, but the rest of the party loaded themselves aboard two rakes of tunnelling trucks, fitted with curiously hard seats for the occasion, and were hauled through the tunnel to the Orongorongo Valley.
The tunnel is just on two miles long, or, in a truck behind a horse that knows his job, it is 30 minutes long, most of them wettish from the continual drip, drip from the rocky roof above, and black dark except for the lights given by a couple of acetylene flare lights, and all of them teeth-rattling and bone-jarring. In other words, 30 minutes of quite good fun.
Out into the daylight again, everyone set out round the old truck tracks, skirting the Orongorongo stream, for the intakes of the Orongorongo-Karori water main. On that side too, the day was perfect, and the bush, the many gradations of sunlight among the big trees on the first ridge and far off in the distance, was truly magnificent.
STREAM VERY LOW
There are in the bush itself no signs of the long dry spell—not until one goes in a little way and sees the more delicate fern banks a good deal withered—but the stream is very low; it is a stream and no more. The dams in the Wainui valley are still brimful, and there is a steady overflow; but if this spell lasts for another month the position may be serious. Already the council has issued a warning that the waste of water and hosing without meters must stop.
Averaged out round the year enough water runs down the Wainui and Orongorongo valleys to supply a much greater city than Wellington, but dam capacity at present is inadequate to store wet-weather flow for the dry summer months. Whether more storage will be provided for in the Wainui valley (to store Orongorongo as well as Wainui water) to be shared by the people of the Greater Wellington area and not merely the city, or whether a Whakatiki, Little Akatarawa, or Hutt River scheme shall be proceeded with, will presumably be one of the first main questions discussed when the City and Suburban Water Supply Board meets.
For the time being there is plenty of water for Wellington, but only if its use is restricted to legitimate domestic and trade purposes. Perhaps the time will come when the council will say to the home gardener: “Yes, tie it to the spade handle by all means.” At present the council has other views.
An hour or so was spent on the Orongorongo side, and then it was a case of trucks again for another 30 minutes. There are very flourishing glow-worm colonies all the way through the hill, but, curiously enough, one does not see them until returning from the Orongorongo side. Perhaps they sit tight on the southern side of rocky protuberances in the walls and roof of the tunnel to get out of a draught; at any rate they do sit on one side and not on the other.
At Waitomo one has to keep silent or the lights go out, but a rake of trucks is far from silent, and the Orongorongo glow-worms carry right ahead. After afternoon tea had been served, the speech rule was again broken, very briefly, Councillor W. H. Bennett and Mr. Campbell thanking the Mayor and Mayoress for their hospitality and the pleasure of the day’s outing. The cars returned to town at about 5 o’clock.
Dr. Hill left for Nelson and the West Coast last night. At Nelson, he will confer with the authorities of the Cawthron Institute, and then pay a visit to the Franz Josef Glacier. He will return to Wellington before leaving for the North.
