AN EVENTFUL TRIP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 10 February 1933, Page 8

AN EVENTFUL TRIP

DRIVING IN THE RAIN WATER RUNS THROUGH BABY CAR Last Monday week was particularly hot- in Christchurch, the thermometer reaching 87.9 deg. It was in this heat that two people, a man and wife, set out for Westport in their well loaded Baby Austin. All that could be done at this end was to hope that they had a good trip, and give them money to send a telegram when they arrived safely. This they did —some three days later—and the telegram stated that they would be writing. The letter tells its own story, says the Christchurch “Times.” ' It 'is to be remembered that they were to be at \\ estport by the. Thursday morning, if possible, as the man was teaching in a school near the town.

“Eci'iytbing went well in the morning. Ilif heat was rather terrible, but this was not so bad until noon, and then it was stilling. For our lunching spot I reckon we picked the hottest, stillest bank in the whole of the South Island. It made me feel sick. 1 felt better when we got moving. This was rather a painful business, as we met seven mobs ol sheep (large ones) and two herds of cattle, and we had one puncture. “As the clouds looked threatening, we passed by the small porch a' Mirza, and went on to th.e Grassmere School, between Ward and Seddon. We slept in the shelter shed at the school, and tied up the tent fly to cover the car and siielter the entrance of the shed. Had we know'll what we would experience the next, day, we would not have worried about the- ear.

TEEMING rain “We left Grassmere in drizzling rain, and had an uneventful trip to Blenheim. We left Blenheim at 10.30, and proceeded along the Wairau Valley in teeming ram. About thirty-five miles out, we met a motor truck. The driver slopped us, and told us lie didn’t think we would be able to get through the creeks. However, us two other cars were just ahead and service cars were exnccted, we decided to look at the creeks. The first one was not really bad, but we took it rather slowly, and stopped in the middle. We. did not want to wait for another car, in case the water rose, so there was nothing for it but to push it out. I wisli we had a snap of it—poor old Babv. stuck in the middle of the creek, and we two, with our clothes tucked up as far as we could "et them, pushing Sadie out in the teeming rain. It was no time for snapshots. C pushed manfully on the side, and I lent a hand in the rear with a large rock handy to push under the wheel when the car moved forward a few inches. It must have taken half an hour to get it out, and by that time we were soaked to the skin.

“We drove on, and three stationary cars told us that w'e had reached the next creek. It was fairly deep, but had a smooth bottom. The three cars were through, but one had stuck and jammed the self-starter. Hie men on the other side refused to give us a tow, as they had been through twice, and the water was rising, but. they said they would give us a push if we stuck. Just then a big Chrysler came up, and we were soon towed through, water running through the engine in the meantime. TOW-ROPE BROKE

“We mopped up some of the water and went on. When we came to the next- creek, we found that the Chrysler had waited for us. When we reached the middle of the creek the tow-rope broke, and there we were, with water rushing through the ventilators. (We wouldn’t have Itried -either of these creeks on our own.) The gentleman of the Chrysler had a brain-wave, and procured a piece of wire from the fence. This held us till we were safe on the other bank. Once more we mopped out, and it was still decided to make for the nearest shelter to change. 11ns happened to be at Lake Rotoiti, about thirty miles away. “We tried every shed we saw, but they were all locked, so we tried the store and the lady there gave us a cup of tea, the best cup I have ever had. After that we decided to dispense with lunch and push on. Just before Kawatiri we came to another creek, which was then a raging torrent. We decided to wait for something to tow us through. It was three hours before a lorry came up. He had already towed five' cars through ev'erv creek between Blenheim and Tophouse, so he knew what we wanted.

- BRIDGE UNDERMINED “We discussed going on, but finally and fortunately decided to get as near to Murchison as we, could and camp tlieie. When we came to Doctor’s Creek, we found that the bridge was undermined. The original bridge had been washed away by the floods following the earthquake. A new concrete bridge had been built, but the water had washed round either end. Wooden planks had been built on to the concrete, resting on each end. Now the water was washing away the banks still further. We inspected it and over we went. I do not know bow long it lasted. Near Murchison, a wat-er-fall which should have run under the road was falling right into the middie of the road, washing it away. We passed this just in time, too,. We camped at the l Public Works hut outside Murchison. “When we reached Murchison the following morning, we found that we could not have got through the Gorge, even if we had wanted to. There was water everywhere. We could tell by the damage done to the surface that there must have been torrents racing down everywhere. We struck another stream just outside Murchison, and after twenty minutes ‘humming and lining’ we decided to risk it and simply sailed through. The rest of the journey was simple, the four remaining creeks being easily forded. Most of the water had got away the night before. At Inangahua, on Tuesday evening, the water was waist deep over the bridge. There had been half a dozen bad slips between Inangahua and Westport, but these had all been cleared away. Although the road was clear, I was mighty glad to get out of the Gorge. At Cape Foulwind there had been practically no ram over the holidays, yet they say that a rain gauge measured 14 inches, and therefore most of that must have fallen on Monday and Tuesday.