LIFTS ON THE WAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 58, 9 March 1932, Page 6

LIFTS ON THE WAY.

COURTESY ON THE ROAD

(By E.CJ.)

And when, as the afternoon shadows began to grow long on the road before them, their packs, which they had carried blithely most of the afternoon, began to feel strangely heavy, they knew it was time to look for a place to camp for the night. And so was about to end another day's march for five Auckland 'Varsity students tramping through the Urewera from Te Whaiti across the Huiarau Range to Lake Waikaremoana., and back again through the bush to Taneatua.

But this is not a tale of the sombre grandeur of the bush and its silence, or of Waikaremoana, where, one Maori chief said, was to be found "the peace that passcth all understanding," but rather of the road, and the kindliness met With thereon. Wherever they went they were greeted with the practical courtesy which townsfolk, _to their shame, would call extraordinary, but which in the country seems to be taken for granted. Lorry drivers, navvies, .motorists, service-car drivers, settlers, Maori and pakelia, did all they could for those who were absolute strangers to them. It would, perhaps, be invidious to talk of degrees of kindness where all were kindness itself; but the five thought more of those settlers whose actions were like the oil in the widow's cruee than of the motorists whose lifts, though kindly meant, were carelessly given. Ever since' they had "tramped" from Auckland to Rotorua at a total cost of 2/ they had met with nothing but open-handed kindness. It started when two of the party had been able to get lifts from Auckland to Hamilton from lorry drivers. There were five in the party all told. They had thought it best to divide into two, three to travel to Rotorua while two chanced getting lifts. Thus right from the start they had the adventure of the trip with them.

At Hamilton they determined to try their luck further; but they could find not a single vehicle of any sort going south. They had a snack of breakfast, they struggled into their packs, for their enthusiasm was stron<; within them, and cheerfully took their fate into their hands. They had taken provisions with them, tinned stuff. Anyone who has tramped will know the old maxim of "eating a pack light." They had not yet had the chance. The inference, and the correct one, is that their packs were heavy. In the mid-morning heat they set off; and they walked; and it drew from mid-imorning into midday. They still walked. The packs became leaden, and the dust from the road became one with the heat that shimmered on the white ribbon stretching far ahead. They had scarcely started. Cars passed them, blithely flinging up clouds of dust. They tramped. After a few more hundred miles, seemingly, one of the p art y flun S Jlit3 P ac . k from him in disgust and firmly announced his intention of resting. It was then that the two of them together produced what might have been called a barometer of human nature, a barometer which fell or rose according as a passing vehicle stopped to give them a lift, or did not. They were resting in the shade of a hedge when they heard a lorry. Their individual barometers gave an uncertain jerk; and then went steadily up. Surely the cheery driver would give them a lift. So he did —for three hundred yards, as far as he was going. He grinned at them as he turned into his gate.

Jf the road had been hot before, it was even hotter now, and they were then only some dozen miles from the town. Another lorry loomed up behind them, and again their barometer fluctuated. But this time they were taken right into Cambridge. As they sat on the back of the lorry and watched the wayside green speed into a blurr they decided that life was good. That night, the first proper of their tour, they knew a great content and their pipes Rmoked sweetly.

In the cool of the morning they struck out of the sleepy little town, along a way lined with up-reaching, straight poplars. And when they were only an hour on their way a service car overtook them and stopped. Both of the trampers had ready refusals on their lips, for they had no money to spend on service cars; but the driver cursed them good-naturedly and told them to get in. They did so and got out again only at Rotorua. The driver laughed at them again, when they offered even such money as they could afford.

All arrangements made at Auckland had pre-siipj,oi3ed the earlier arrival of the train travellers. In fact, be it admitted, the former had been just a trifle supercilious of the determination of the two to come by road, and chance their luck. What was their pained surprise, then, to be hailed even before they could collect their belongings and get out of the carriage by those to whom they had intended to be condescendingly gracious.

The walk through the Urewera does not begin properly until Te Whaiti is reached; and between Rotorua and that little place stretch long, dreary miles of unchanging plains, as far ae the eye can see. To walk that would have been a waste of precious time. Hero, again, they were helped by lorry drivere, to whom it was an act of no great kindness to give five trampers a lift over all that way. At the lorry depots it was again the accepted thing that their tea and their breakfast should be cooked for them. Such things were done for them all along the way.

Then, on the morrow, as the miles were steadily eaten up under them, it was five youths who ruminated on their luck; and their barometers remained steady at high.