Canoeists Safe After Capsize In Waimakariri

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29715, 8 January 1962, Page 10

Canoeists Safe After Capsize In Waimakariri

Two Christchurch canoeists whose craft capsized and was wrecked in the upper Waimakariri river on Saturday afternoon made their way out from rugged country in the Mount White and Woodstock areas, to the Bealey hotel, early yesterday afternoon.

Almost 24 hours overdue on their scheduled four-hour canoe trip down the Waimakariri river from Mount White to the Waimakariri gorge bridge, the two men arrived at the hotel footsore and weary, but otherwise unharmed.

Lightly clad, they had been on the move since 5 a.m. yesterday, making their way out to the road at Bealey. Their arrival forestalled a major search which was being organised by police from Darfield and Oxford among local residents, including a number with jet boats. The two canoeists are Desmond Hardy and James Hardy, of 23 Beatrice place. Upper Riccarton.

Fears for their safety were felt after relatives, who had arranged to meet the men at the Waimakariri gorge bridge, had waited throughout Saturday night without finding a trace of the overdue men. The Waimakariri river was swollen from heavy rain in the upper watershed. Their failure to arrive was reported to Constable P, Larmer, of Darfield, at 2 p.m. yesterday. Mr Claude Belcher, of Kowai Bush, was notified earlier and set out in his jet-boat to search the upper reaches of the Waimakariri river for signs of the missing men. He came upon wreckage of the men’s canoe some miles upstream from Woodstock' station.

While Mr Belcher was engaged in this phase of the search Constable Larmer had got in touch with Constable V. Strong, ot Oxford, who had already heard that the canoeists were missing and organised a search party from Woodatock. Footprints leading from the river and heading in the direction of a hut owned by Mr C. W. F. Hamilton had been found near the wreckage of the canoe. Some of these searchers had already been to the hut, and left a message for the men. should they make their way to the hut, to await the search party’s return. Word was later received, however, that the men had made their way out to the Bealey hotel. Constable Larmer said fears for the men’s safety was felt when it was realised they were nearly a day overdue, and had made their way somewhere into the back country in the Woodstock area, where they spent the night, after their canoe had capsized.

He said he was about to organise a bigger search party, and had alerted a number of jet-boat owners.

when he learned the men had made their own way out. The wife of the proprietor of the Bealey Hotel said the men arrived at the hotel footsore and weary about 2 p.m. and said they had been tramping from 5 a.m. They were clad in light clothes and footwear.

They had called at Cass on their way out to notify their whereabouts but had found nobody about. At the Bealey Hotel the men telephoned the Post and Telegraph Department supervisor at Darfield (Mr A. G. Elstob), who then notified the police. Shortly before. Mr Elstob had been asked by the police to try to communicate with Cass, which was closed, to open up the private line to Mount White station to facilitate search operations. The men said yesterday that they “just could not hold their canoe when it got out of control on a rough stretch of the river.”