MOTORING

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 59, 11 March 1930, Page 17

MOTORING

Sporlmell

EVENTFUL MOTOR TRjt^/" sunshine. Except in the hollows, where we had stretches of water to cross, and if it had not been for these little interludes of an exciting nature and the fact of so much water entirely surrounding us, it would have been hard to believe there was any trouble ahead of us likely to cause undue delay or inconvenience. But we were soon to have a practical demonstration that the lovely weather conditions which' we were enjoying in such comfort at the moment would prove somewhat trying to the gentler portion of our company later on when exposed to , its full brightness. .Evidently there were some cars ahead of us which we had not seen—private cars which had set out early in the morning. We came up with them at a beautiful spot on the beach road, with high cliffs on one side and the Pacific 'Ocean on the other. White Island was steaming away in the distance, and the roll of the breakers on the beach below, with giant pohutukawa trees lining the road for some distance, made a scene of surpassing splendour in the lovely sunshine.-

FROM GISBORNE TO ROTORUA.

UNDER FLOOD CONDITIONS.

HOLIDAY VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS,

(NO II.)

The writer of these notes set out on-,S holiday trip three weeks ago fro ™ through Hamilton to Rotorua and thence via Opotiki to Gisborne, .spending an interest^ and enjoyable time in the vicinity of I o\city Bay. Business calls necessitated a quick return to. Auckland and he es ® i e avin" through by service car 16th Gisborne - on , Sunday morning, the ibtn Following ,is a graphic account of ms experience:—•

The wires were busy that night and next morning in. Opotiki. lie > service: people, were, making inquiries in all directions' as' to ther possibility of getting through to • Whakatane and Rotorua.lt was. decided eventually that the cars would leave- about .9- a.m. and take all risks... .The day broke fine but dull, and there had been no furthOT rain to speak'of'during the tighu By the time we staked (9 I thfc sun was. shmmg *>ngh . were a merry party whey took -eats in (the car, quite prepared to be back but very hopeful- of getting through, even if we had to.put up with discomfort and adventure, ; °™ citing. Our first obstacle str ®T[ of water over the road abQutSOOjards lon of. It was not more than 2ft m the deepest part, and this proved mere child's play to us who had come through the Waiawa Bridge episode. ' About here the fields were cohered with water nearly-to the tops oL th fences, the sheep and cattle having been driven to the higher land some distance away. Here and there were _grassy knolls with trees and building and sheep and cattle out of Barm's way "bu. for the most pal-t the land was fiat, with houses, outbuildings and stacks surrounded by. water. Stretches hundreds, of acres in extent were completely under water. One local man whom we took on-as a passenger at the outskirts of Opotiki was an acquisition to our party at this time for the information he was: able to give us about different spots v of,' interest we passed. He remarked on one occasion that the poor cockies ° n \ £ hills would have the laugh on the rich, cockies of the flats that morning. rhi.s brought a naiye inquiry from one-of the ladies present, which raised aheartv, laugh all round'as she said, without a smile, "I wonder what the price of land is by the gallon down here this morning?"

Another Blockage,

There was a big obstacle across the ; road, however, at which men and horses and scoops were working with indomitable energy. The road was wide at-this part of the : slip, wfth /fair-sized trees in its thickest, part, and the slip extended . right across the road. -- The men *'were scooping a passage through the oouter ' edge of the / slip and

tossing it down the bank on the other side of the cutting. When we reached the place the consistency of the debris being removed was thick, muddy clay with plenty of water in it, and consequently fairly easy for the scoop to go through. We were told that another quarter* of an hour would see a passage large enough for us to go through. Actually, we got through in ten minutes from the time we stopped, which was quick work.

A car of the latest type hopped over in front of us as soon as permission was given and piloted the way to the next stop, which was a most innocent-look-ing obstruction at first sight, but it proved too much for us, and was our undoing for nearly two hours. On the way to this place we passed a notable place called Crab Farm, totally surrounded by water. Then we had a sight of Gabriel's Gully, a pretty valley, even with a foreground of flooded fields as it was, but totally unlike the famous Gabriel's Gully in the South Island, where the gold rush occurred. Not long after passing Gabriel's Gully we encountered a milk cart and horse, whose driver informed us that we had as much chance of getting through to Whakatane that day as he had of making a fortune at farming. He told us about slips and washouts not far ahead, that a bridge was down, ard sundry other things that were in store for us if we persisted in going that way. But go we did.

but a sea of thick mud with water on top. After some strenuous work with his shovel he made several channels to let the water away, and went all over the length of it probing with his shovel. It was not more than 50 yards in length, but at the far end a culvert had been washed away and the depression was filled with mud. Beyond that the road was strewn with rough driftwood of all sizes, but nothing big enough to Btop us if we got over.

By this time a line of cars had pulled up behind us, and one driver of a big car was more venturous than cautious. He determined to "give it a go." This was better than waiting about at any rate, and he was loudly applauded for his pluck. So at it he went. The channels that had been made by the pilot man had run most of the water off and the residue was now of a thick pea soup nature, through which the car ploughed steadily but surely. It looked as if he was going to get across, and the excitement was intense. The mud was up to the running-board almost, and he was within eight or ten yards off the firm ground on the far side when the car refused to go further. Neither would she come back. The exhaust got stuffed with mud, the engine stopped, and that was the end of that stunt. Help Sent. It was impossible to get over that broken culvert. There was a farm near here, but no sign of life about it. Jfiven if we could have got a horse or two to hitch on to the car, as was suggested by several, "it is questionable whether they could have got a footing to work on. We were about to turn round and go back to try the Wainui road, when a little girl was espied coming over the paddocks ahead of us waving something in her hand. It proved to be a note to our driver saying that the serVica cars had arrived about a mile and a half away and that a cart would be sent fot our luggage, the passengers to walk the

Nothing but the insurmountable impediment itself would stop us, and we had not far to go before we found it. At first it looked like an ordinary sheet of water over the road, and invited us to go through it. But there was something about it that belied its innocent look, and our pilot man hopped out to investigate. So suspicious was he that he came back to his car for a longhandled shovel, and with this in his hand he waded in and sunk up to his knees in thick mud. It was nothing

intervening distance. This was promising, at any rate, so we climbed over fences to get round to the road on the other side of the bad spot and set off on our lpng walk in the hot sunahine. It was 10.10 a.m. when we first arrived at this place; wh?n we started our walk it was about 11.25. We had not gone far when we came to a series of water channels crossing the road, with thick gravel, stones and tree stumps all around., Some of us took off our shoes and stockings and carried women and girl# over this part. Others ploughed through it without bothering about anybody elfle. Some of the ladies, too, were quite independent, and looked after themselves. About here, too, we began to meet pedestrians coming from the opposite direction to tako possession of the cars we had left behind. They - had started away from their cars sooner than we did from ours, and were, therefore, nearer their destination. They informed Ub that there were plenty , of thrills ahead of us, which proved to be true. Notwithstanding this, cheerfulness was the predominating spirit, and although there were more women than men among the travellers, the former invariably the custodians of any children present, the independence and pluck of the fair sex were remarkable. Not only were they plucky and resourceful, but they set us an example in the fun they got out of it, in spite of the heat and the disarray of the usual, feminine embellishments, (To be concluded next Tuesday.) STRIKING EXPORT FIGURES. I Facts and figures are usually dull and uninteresting, but the table shown below should make every rider of a British machine feel justly proud of being one of a great multitude which contributes towards keeping a British industry head and ehouldens above its foreign rivals, says the English "Motor Cycle." The motor cycle industry has an export credit i ! ar above that of the British car trade, and this success is undoubtedly due to the advertising value of British successes overseas and to the real worth of the goods themselves. During 1929, motor cars, lorries and parts to the value of £10,775,327 were exported; imports amounted to £9,258,123 and of those imports £514,644 were exported, making a total credit balance of £2,031,848. But it is a very different story with motor cycles. Last year motor cycles and accessories (excluding tyres) to the value of £4,0113,233 were exported, while goods valued at only £16,362 were imported. Of this £16,362 a value of £3029 wa« exported, making a total export credit balance of £4,001,900, or nearly two millions better than that of the car industry! The table below shows December export figures for 1927, 1928 and 1929, with the yearly totals for the same periods. Motor cycles, including parts and accessories, for the month of December: — 1927. 1628. 1929. £237445 £271,052 £206,909 Totali for 7 tar ending December 31 1027. 1928. 1929. | 183,785,799 £4,015,233