FREE AS AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 135, 4 December 1937, Page 9

FREE AS AIR

Iw rIALU oLnUJL/ULL

DRESS AS YOU PLEASE

JOYS OF MOTOR

CAMPING

The increasing popularity of motor camping is readily understood. Everyone knows that the best of holidays are those without schedule, tiresome engagements to meet certain people at certain spots, and all the bother of raiment for all sorts of occasions. Given a roomy car and not too many people in it, Ihe North Island motorist has the pick of New Zealand camping at his disposal, and one of the chief delights of a leisurely tour of this kind is that if anything so appeals as to be worth a day's stop, in half an hour the tent is up and the home that moves with you is thfsre. Practice makes the pitching and striking of camp a matter of minutes, as after the first day or two everything has its fixed place on the car. What appeals to many people, moreover, is that motor camping is cheap.

For young people anywhere does for a camp, provided there are wood and water handy, and it is seldom that property owners object if permission is sought in a sensible way. For older folk, or even for the comfort-loving younger set, there are motor camps. Some of these have all the facilities of a home, not in the one building, but there nevertheless. Hot water, bathrooms, cooking sheds with electric or gas slot machines, open fireplaces, and j an most cases some kind of hut with bunks, and occasionally fine little baches with all facilities self-contained, make it possible to go without little that could be had at home. All motor camps have ample grass space for those who like to really camp out, and most of them, in the season, make firewood available. CARAVANS POPULAR. Then there are the caravans, an increasing number of which are upon the road this year. These range from the self-contained caravan vehicle, with bunks and curtained windows, to the small truck with a tilt over the back, to say nothing of the trailer types, some of which have telescopic walls. Trailers have their disadvantages in some respects, especially on. the steep turns of some of the less frequented, roads, and anyone who has had to try to reverse with a trailer knows what may happen. The great point is that the weight is off the car springs, and without a trailer the car is apt to be overloaded. Caravan life is essentially carefree, and it is not surprising that it has assumed such proportions in parts of the United States that caravan parks are overcrowded. Cooking in camp is no more trouble than at home if one of the many outfits available is carried, but, if the art is mastered, spit roasts cannot be bettered in any oven. All that is necessary is to lean the meat, which must contain fat or be basted, over a small fire with a fair body of embers, which must be replenished from time to time without overdoing it. Any clean tin serves to catch the dripping fat for basting. A piece of fencing standard I makes an excellent spit, one end being sharpened for driving in the ground. Steaks may be grilled in several ways also. An all-frying-pan diet is apt to pall, and-all motor campers get rather too -used -to- egg's and bacon. A few vegetables make one feel one has fed. The motor camper has it all over the tramper, as stores are certain to be passed during the day's run, and it is not necessary to carry big stocks. It was strange on a trip made in October to • find that the tent was warmer than the ■ huts occasionally used, with the exception of one with the familiar iron bush chimney, where the log fire was welcome during a snow fall. The Christmas and New Year camper will probably find it pleasanter with the walls of the tent looped up. There are models of tents to suit all parties, but the centre pole variety in some form is handier when motoring. If a screw top tin containing several gallons of water is carried, camp can be made anywhere, but it is sometimes advisable to pick up enough dry wood unless a cook stove is carried. The object of the trip being to avoid all obligations to be anywhere at any set time, this extra trouble is well worth while. A grassy flat, a cascade or runlet, and there is the camp. . ■ MANY MOTOR CAMPS. Motor camps are being so plentifully supplied by automobile associations that the distance between them allows of the most leisurely travel,. but anglers, stream or sea, often stop at likely sports, where there is no camp. In the forest areas camping is allowed only at fixed places, on account of the fire danger, but elsewhere, provided that it is realised that all ground belongs to somebody, and permission should be obtained, there are few irksome restrictions. There is a lot of fun in sampling the motor camps. One may sleep in old tram cars fitted up as baches, or even in the grandstand of a disused racecourse, and generally there is the choice of a hut or pitching the tent. Attention is being paid at many resorts, such as hot springs, to the provision of motor camps. There is much to be said. for the principle carried out on a Bay of Plenty beach, where the charges are graded for the facilities offered. Motor camping is only in its infancy in New Zealand, and the lay-out of camps is steadily being improved. No distinctions are made and everyone is equally friendly and helpful, but the needs of all campers are not alike. The caravanner is more independent of facilities than the tent camper in some ways, but must have room for car and trailer,. while the tent camper needs more wind shelter. Many people want nothing but a water tap and sanitation. This is realised at some of the camps, where rainproof fireplaces and a grass flat, fill such people's requirements perfectly. What is needed, to suit everybody's varying needs, is a scale with the simplest facilities at one snd, and comfortable weatherproof huts at the other. During the holidays samps are apt to be overcrowded, Dften because people who have made friends at some favourite spot in former years arrange to meet there again. The surplus campers do not require huts so much as space within .-each of the simpler facilities.

The coming holiday season will see nore motor camping than ever. The ■oads are now so good that distances Jo not necessarily mean long hours of driving, but the general tendency is :o get as far on of the familiar dis:ricts as possible the first day, and ;ravel more leisurely amongst new scenes. To the majqrity of motor tampers the camp is becoming more and more the thing, and the long tour appears to be losing favour. The ideal 'ortnight is a two-day drive to new launts, three days or so at some 'avourite beach or pleasure ground, md a week's unscheduled travel to !resh beauty spots, with a route avoidng long retracements of road.

Such nt th>) cable news on 'ills pace aa is o hearted nas appeared in "The Times" and \? rjhled lo Australia and Now Zealand hy prrial permission. It should bo understood hat the opinions are not thoso of "Tho Time3'' a] ess expressly stated to 'be so.