Lone Woman Will Greet 400 Men At Sound

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30213, 19 August 1963, Page 2

Lone Woman Will Greet 400 Men At Sound

(From Out Own Reporter) DEEP COVE, August 16. When the Wanganella sails into this remote cove, early next month, to serve as a “floating hostel” for 400 men, the ship will be greeted by a lone woman. For many of them, she is likely to be the only woman they will see for months, and possibly years on end.

The woman, who has found her own way to this remote southern fiord, is Miss Helen Charnoud, aged 38, of English parentage, who comes from Ceylon. She has dark hair and is of rather slim build. She is not associated with Manapouri Power Project itself.

Miss Charnoud, who is a skilled amateur photographer, came to Deep Cove, on a walking holiday. Since her arrival a few weeks ago. she has been helping The Lodge proprietor, as a cook. When a reporter of "The Press” met her at Deep Cove today, she was busy gathering blankets, that had been airing, from a clothes line. She lives in a small hut, by herself. The Lodge hostel.

that previously accommodated about 30 trampers at a time in the summer months, has been bought by the Ministry of Works and is expected to be taken over this week. Today, nine men are living in Deep Cove. Others, mostly project executives and consultants, fly in and out, almost daily by floatplane, or amphibian, weather pennitting. The actual overnight in-

habitants of Deep Cove live in the roomy weatherboard hostel that looks not unlike a 50-year-old New Zealand farmhouse. It is snug against the bush, at the base of snowclad mountains, at the extreme inland end of the sound, with the snow-fed Lyvia river running past a few feet aiway. The male inhabitants at Deep Cove today comprise two surveyors, Bob Archer and Bill Watts, four labourers (three of whom are also tunnellers), a visitor and two marine captains. One of the labourers, an Australian, Jim Sheard, aged 25 years, has already laid some claim to fame, before the £9,387,787, sj -mile, tailrace tunnel project is barely under way. He became the project’s first workman. To make sure tiheit he would not miss a labourer's job on the 400-man task, he walked 14 miles along a mountainous bush track to Deep Cove a month ago. He waited two days for the surveyors. When they arrived, they found it impossible to refuse a man who showed such enterprise. Sheard was hired on the spot. Since he landed his Doubtful Sound’s job, Sheard has chalked up another first by growing the first beard of any men on the project. It is dark and luxurious, with a slight reddish tinge on the tip. "I guess there will be a few dozen beards grown on this project before the four or five years are out,” said Sheard. Misgivings Whereas men Like Sheard look forward to the excitement, rapid progress, and constant change that the project will generate, other men at present at Deep Cove, like the lodge manager, Doug Morland, have misgivings. Sheard says he will welcome the coming of civilisation to the sound and the accompanying modern amenities. But Morland looks on the arrival of the Wanganella much as a condemned man awaits the fall of the executioner's axe. "It won't be the same,” he said. “I won’t be here when the mob comes. I think I’ll head off to one of the other sounds.”