WOMEN TRAMPERS

Evening Star, Issue 23832, 12 March 1941, Page 9

WOMEN TRAMPERS

hissing between titirahgi and PIHA SEARCH PARTIES OUT [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, March 11. Three Auckland women who loft tho city on Friday evening to undertake a tramping trip from Titirangi to liha and were to have returned home on Sunday evening have not been seen since. A number of search parties will leave Auckland to-morrow morning to comb the bush. . , .. A message was received in the city late to-night from an unknown source that the missing women had been found 20 miles from Titirangi, but the police were unable to confirm it. ine three women are Miss Hazel 1 arke , aged .21, Miss Rent, aged 20, and Mrs Fiveash, aged about 40. It is believed that none of the three had had tramping experience. They wore travelling light, and had sufficient food to last them for only two days. f * r as is known, none of them tv as a member of a recognised damping c ub The missing women left Auckland about 5 o’clock on Friday night. They are believed to have told several neonle that they intended to find a track through the bush from'Titirangi to Piha via Bethells, and would sleep in the open on Friday and Saturday nights. As soon as the Auckland police were advised this morning of their failure to return on Sunday evening inquiries were made in several country districts, but without result. All SAFE LITTLE THE WORSE FOR THEIR ORDEAL [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, March 12. Calls from one of the party of three youno- women trampers who were lost in the Waitakere Ranges since Friday were heard by a settler in the Hiua Gorge last night, and early this morning searchers proceeded up the gorge to find the other two, who had remained in the rough bush camp which the three had made when they realised they were lost. The one who came down the gorge to seek help was Mrs A. W. Fiveash, who looked little the worse,, except for scratches from scrambling through the undergrowth. She said the party camped on Friday night on an overgrown track near Little Huia, and it was not until Saturday that they felt doubtful about their position. Having plenty of tinned food and water from the stream they decided to await help. After two nights Mrs Fiveash decided to go downstream for assistance. Sho called loudly for help from 2 o’clock in. the afternoon and her calls were heal'd about 9 o’clock last night By a son of Mr A. E. Fletcher, who owns a farm at the foot of the Karamatura Gorge. Searchers found her and brought her to the farmhouse. The other two (Misses Parker and A. D., Rent) were found by" 'S large v party' party comprising residents and police early ■ this afternoon. They were suffering slightly from exposure, but otherwise were little the worse for their experiences. They are being brought back to the city.