DOUBLE TROUBLE

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34131, 19 April 1976, Page 17

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Was it Jack London who wrote that famous story about the man in the Canadian wilds, with but three matches between himself and extinction? The story was of how he gathered the makings of the fire which was all that could save him from perishing; how the first two matches failed to strike, how the third lit the fire successfully — only for the heat of the flames to dislodge heavy snow in branches above him which put the fire out?

The tale was recalled recently by the sorry story of a young man in Hawke’s Bay who wanted to go to his brother’s wedding in Christchurch. But he could afford to travel only by his motorcycle. He knew it would be a long and numbing trip, even if he swathed himself in every bit of clothing he could find. He was desperately cold not long after he had left Napier. He stuck it out

stoically until Wellington and the ferry trip to Picton. Then in the very small hours of the morning, he was on his way south again, with the weather even more depressing than before. But as he roared through the night, chilled to the marrow, he was comforted by the knowledge that in his pack he had a little spirit stove, and some coffee mixture. He kept thinking about it. mile after mile, and kept putting off having it, in the belief that the longer he stuck it out, the more gorgeous it would be. But a few miles this side of Kaikoura, he could wait no longer. With numbed fingers he assembled his little treasures, and before long the coffee balanced above the little flame was giv ing off delicious odours. It was just at the proper temperature, and he was about to take it from the flame, when round

the corner thundered an enormous articulated truck, travelling at its highest legal speed. Or a little more. The whoosh of air was enough; before his glazed gaze, and it seemed, in slow motion, the coffee pot tumbled and spilled its fragrant contents over the icy road verge. It was a traumatic experience. But within 72 hour?., he suffered another. By then it was Sunday, the das after the wedding, and the young man was pounding north again on a machine which seemed by that stage to have had very nearly enough It broke down when he w'as miles from anywhere; and as he w'restled with an almost insoluble problem in mechanics, a car went past. The passengers did not give him a glance. Anc he accepted that it could hardly be otherwise. lor in the car were his brother and the bride.