Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "All things considered, this part of New Zealand may be regarded as equal to the Swiss Alps in scenic interest, - and even more interesting in the amount and beauty of the various bodies of water, and in the number of cataracts which abound in these "Alps of the Western Hemisphere."
Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "This is an amazingly beautiful lake; more than a thousand feet above sea level, about fifty miles long and exceedingly deep. Azure blue, cobalt blue and the blue of coral seas are seen in its waters; and on the highest summits of the practically treeless ranges that wall it in. snow exists at all times of the year. Geologists say that Waktipu occupies the bed of a glacier, but according to Maori mythology it was dug with a spade by Chief Rakahaitu. Gooding says "If this be true, Rakaihaitu was the greatest navvy New Zealand has ever produced and had he lived today he would have been the very man to dig the Panama Canal."
Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "New Zealands only misfortune is that she is so far from the centers of population on our globe. But, undoubtedly as wealth increases in the world, and our globe trotters tire of the more common and convenient places, New Zealand will attract increasing numbers and eventually will become a great Mecca, particularly for the more hardy and appreciative of the tourists and adventurers. The higher parts of the Southern Alps of New Zealand challenge comparison with the Alps of Switzerland, for although they fall short by two or three thousand feet, the lower snow-line of the New Zealand Alps more than compensates for their lesser altitude. Mt. Cook, 12,350 feet, is the highest point not only in the Southern Alps, but in New Zealand. Its Maori name, Aorangi, means "Cloud in the Heavens.""
