ROVER SCOUTS’ TREK

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24768, 8 January 1946, Page 3

ROVER SCOUTS’ TREK

ADVENTURES IN NORTH ISLAND '• The Press ’’ Special Service HASTINGS, January 7. After adventurous weeks of tramping in which they forded racing rivers, climbed windswept mountain sides, and walked 150 miles over tussock plains and through dense forests in the heart cf the North Island, a party of Rover Scouts from Rover crews throughout New Zealand are returning to* their homes in their cross-country tranjp from Waiouru Military Camp to a point near the Rangataiki Hotel on the Napier-Taupo road. The scouts encountered every type of weather from snow, hail, and rain to hot, sunny days and frosty nights. More experienced members of the party made side trips to some of the highest peaks of the Kaimanawas. The highest peak in the range, Mount Makorako (5664 ft vfes climbed by three Hastings Rovers, Ken Perrin, Alfred Dixon, and Jack Garrick. Bad weather made the ascent particularly difficult, but the party’s efforts were rewarded by storm clouds momentarily lifting when they reached the top to afford an inspiring vista of the rugged ranges and distant rivers.

Maungarahe Peak (4771 ft was climbed by all the Rovers. They met only one person in their entire journey. He was a rabbiter, living 15 miles by pack-horse train from his station. He came home from setting traps one evening to find the Rovers bivouacked in the bush surrounding his small hut and comfortable log cabin. The rabbiter earned the trampers’ gratitude when he handed them bread and cake made by him the previous day in a camp oven. All members of the party appeared tanned and exceptionally fit after their journey.