surveyors, Henry Whitcombe, to proceed to the West Coast by way of the pass that today bears his name. This ill-starred explorer was accompanied by a Swiss named Lauper, whose diary of the exploration was translated and published in the Canterbury Provincial Gazette of July 6th, 1863. The following account of this expedition is taken therefrom:
On April 13th Henry Whitcombe and Jacob Lauper, accompanied by two other men, together with horses and a cart containing 200 lbs. of biscuits, tea, sugar, a quarter of mutton, tents, ropes, hatchets, rat traps, etc., left Christchurch with a view to discovering a practicable pass from the head waters of the Rakaia to the West Coast, proceeding by way of the Woolshed Hill, situated about four miles above the confluence of the Rakaia and Wilberforce Rivers. As the country began to get rough Whitcombe decided to leave the cart and some of the biscuits behind, and when they drew close to the ranges the two men were instructed to go back to Christchurch, get the horses shod, return to a camping ground near the Taramakau Saddle, and await the arrival of Whitcombe and Lauper, who went on with the exploration, carrying a small stock of provisions and agreeing to subsist on two biscuits each a day, it being considered that they would reach the coast in two weeks’ time.
