Page:Mannering - With axe and rope in the New Zealand Alps.djvu/13

 P R E F A C E

—

short work contains the story of five seasons' climbing and exploring in the New Zealand Alps. Most of the material embodied in it has already appeared from time to time, in rather a different form, in the Christchurch (N.Z.) 'Weekly Press.'

The author trusts that the publication of the same in book form, together with a map of the locality and a few photographic reproductions, will supply a want in the shape of a guide-book to the Alpine mountain district which is already beginning to be felt by tourists in New Zealand; and he hopes that the contents may not prove uninteresting to the general public, more especially to Swiss and Caucasian climbers, few of whom are perhaps aware of the extent and nature of the New Zealand Alpine chain.

The map is compiled by the New Zealand Government Survey Office from the work of Mr. T. N. Brodrick, Government Surveyor, and that of Dr. R. von Lendenfeld. The illustrations are from photographs by Messrs. Wheeler and Son. Their operator has in several mountain expeditions accompanied the author,