RHODESIAN VISITOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 135, 5 December 1939, Page 14

RHODESIAN VISITOR

LONG RIDE TO SEE THE

EXHIBITION

A FEARLESS EQUESTRIENNE

An unusual equestrienne visitor who has just arrived in Wellington is Miss Mazoe Harrison, of Salisbury, Rhodesia. She has been travelling-for, some years. When in Australia she did much riding, particularly in New South Wales, and when in Auckland recently she decided to buy a horse and ride to Wellington to see the Centennial Exhibition. r Two weeks \ were spent on the ride from Auckland to Inglewood, a distance of about 250 miles, but en route she spent several days of that time staying at Piopid and other places. HOSPITALITY EN ROUTE. "How it rained, especially in Taranaki," said Miss Harrison, "often I was completely soaked, despite my raincoat, and at times I even had a sack across my knees to keep them dry when in the saddle. The hospitality of your people of New Zealand is wonderful, both to me and to my horse, especially in country homes, where I often received a meal for myself and feed for my horse, or stayed a night." Usually she "put up" at accommodation houses en,route, but, on one occasion, she slept in a drover's hut. .Her many experiences were most interesting and often entertaining. *' ' The most difficult part of the ride j had been from Tongaparutu to Urunu'i by the stock route, which she took, in order to avoid Mount Messenger and the bitumen roads. Part of this route included"the sea.beach over huge fiat boulders, where she had to-carefully time the tide in order to avoid being cut off by the sea. Passing through a dark, steep tunnel, deep in mud and rocks, about a quarter of a mile long, on this route was not an enviable experience, she said, and how pleased she was to emerge from it to see the sea beach at last. Some of the tracks

were deep in heavy clay mud, and very slow riding. Unfortunately the..gait of her horse "Ned"' was slow; whbn walking bui he could trot particularly well. . V She has left her horse at Inglewood and completed the journey to Wellington by train, arriving in town in her riding kit,' "and," said she, "the first thing I did on arrival'was to buy a hat!" : ' • : - '. MAY BECOME A STOCK-RIDER. Miss Harrison, who is attractively sun-tanned, is youthfully slim, tall, and fair, and when interviewed was wearing a cool blue linen frock and white, hat. When asked how she carried the necessary clothing and travelling necessities, she said. "In t a piopio, madeof waterproof canvas, with large pockets." Her riding kit included breeches and riding boots, the latter necessary .in mud and over rough tracks so often encountered. . Miss Harrison will later visit the South Island, where she plans-a further riding tour, and she is thinking of obtaining a job as a stock-rider. It looked queer to see the legs of a table wearing stockings with garters. The s explanation - was that the table was a valuable one, and was about to be "conveyed by removalists" to a new home. The idea is worth passing on.