ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 15

ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY

SYDNEY TO CAPE YORK.

LONG TRIP BY "" BABY " CAR.

NEW ZEALANDERS* EXPERIENCES

An interesting account of the memorable trip marie by tho two New Zealandcrs, Messrs. Hector MacQuarrie and Dick Matthews, through bush, from Sydney to Cape York, was given by Mr. MacQuarrie in the course of an illustrated lecture at the Lewis Eady Hall last evening. The speaker was introduced by Mr. J. Seabrook, who said that Mr. MacQuarrie was going to lecture his way through New Zealand, gathering material for his second book, "Emily in New Zealand," Emily being the name given by the adventurers to their "baby" car.

The lecture opened with a short moving picture of the better : known . beauty-spots of Brisbane and Sydney. The next series of pictures showed the "baby" car and the two travellers traversing typical Australian bush country, where there was no road and the driver had to avoid bumps and stones hiddan in thick undergrowth. The whole of the difficult journey was shown in an excellent series of pictures and each picture was explained by Mr. MacQuarrie, who also entertained the audience with amusing experiences of the journey. One of the principal difficulties encountered was the crossing of the numerous rivers and creeks and some of the best pictures showed the little car making a slow way throngh the rock-strewn bed of some, partially-dried stream. "During the whole journey from Sydney to Cape York we were in the bush," Mr. MacQuarrie said, and added that it was at times difficult to pick their way through the heavily-wooded country. Another difficulty was in securing adequate supplies of petrol and when they encountered a township where petrol was procurable they carried with them §s much as possible, even filling bottles, as the great distances which had to be, covered on low gear naturally increased the consumption considerably. Water supplies were also uncertain and on one occasion after an unexpected delay they used their entire reserve. They were fortunately within a few miles of a station, where fresh supplies were obtained.

On one occasion the two travellers encountered a large area of "grass-trees," tough clumps of hardy growth which greatly impeded the progress of the little car. : So tough were the leaves of these particular growths that they punctured the tyres on several occasions, causing further delav. The lecture was very interesting and gave a particularly vivid account of the difficulties which the two travellers met on their daring journey.