Chance find on Clutha trip

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33121, 11 January 1973, Page 10

Chance find on Clutha trip

The two young Christchurch architects on a holiday voyage down the Clutha Riveton tractor tubes have discovered what they think are moa bones, on the banks of Lake Roxburgh,

| The men, Messrs A. J. Dris-1 'coll and T. A. Scott, made the find when they camped lon the banks of the lake lon Tuesday night. I Even though the lake was ] about three feet lower than (usual, the bones were only : partly exposed and took a lot of digging to get out, said ]Mr Driscoll. He thinks they fare part of the legs and ' backbone of the large spei cies of the moa, Dinornis ' Maximus. There was another element of coincidence in the discovery. "We w-ere woken up yesl terday morning with the : water lapping round our tent,

over to the curator of the

'because of a rise in the lake, and the place where wej found the bones was com-] pletely covered over,” said; |Mr Driscoll from Roxburgh! I township yesterday. HARD PADDLING I The pair reached the RoxI burgh hydro about noon yesi terday, where they were welI corned by the engineer at the I I hydro (Mr V. Parks). He hap- ’ pened to be a keen canoeist and gave them valuable information about the rest of the river. “One of the toughest parts of our journey was paddling our rubber dinghies down Lake Roxburgh ladened with the plastic bags full of moa I bones,” said Mr Driscoll, j “However we were very I bucked up w-hen almost the I I whole staff of the Roxburgh I I hydro lined up on the dam ] and waved us farewell as we I I set off down-river towards ] I Roxburgh township.” I They expect to reach Bal-- ] clutha on Thursday evening,( ahead of schedule. They have left the moa! bones with the police in Rox-] burgh and will pick them up! when they drive back to Christchurch. They intend to turn them'

Canterbury Museum (Dr i 1 Roger Duff). Dr Duff had the ■ 'biggest find of Dinornis; Maximus remains in Can-, terbury, in Pyramid Valley i ■ nearly 25 years ago. OVERDUE REPORT I Mr Driscoll explained a' i report in a Dunedin news- ! paper that they were “missing” on their journey down the Clutha. “I think this must have ' been when we did not report Ito the police at Cromwell lon the way down on Monday. At that stage we were too busy in getting through the rapids in the I Cromwell gorge to get in 'touch with anyone.”