ORDEAL IN BUSH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21480, 2 May 1933, Page 10

ORDEAL IN BUSH

' |THE LOST TRAMPERS PRIVATION AND HUNGER IFOOD SUPPLY EXHAUSTED [HOPE NEVER ABANDONED 3)R. SUTCH'S NARRATIVE JBY TELEGRAPH— OWN CORRESPONDENT] ' PALMERSTON" NORTH. Monday In spite of their terrible experiences she three Tararua trampers, Miss M (Williams, Mr. E. Hill and Dr. W. B. Butch, who returned to Palmerston [North last night, are rapidly recovering. Mr. A. H. O'Keefe, who went to i-ris home in Wellington fared worst, and JwiJl possibly bo the only one to suffer (particularly from the fortnight spent by Jhe party in the ranges. Dr. Sutch and Mr. Hill are apparfently little affected, although both have §ost considerably in weight. Miss Williams bore the ordeal wonderfully well, although still suffering somewhat from the effects of the experience. She is the guest of Mrs. R. A. Fuller, and hopes to return this week to the WaSiganui Technical School, where she is engaged as a teacher. The other transfers bear testimony to her wonderful Ipluek and endurance during the terSriblo ordeal.

Miss Williams is unable at present to sco any but intimate friends. She is an experienced tramper, but had pever previously experienced such an S>rdeal. Food For Two Days A graphic account of a journey that Jfrould have tried the most experienced tramper was given by Dr. Sutch to-day. *' We left Te Matawai hut at 4 p.m. on Easter Saturday with the intention of covering before nightfall the 25 milea journey to Mount Holdsworth. Our main equipment consisted of an aneroid barometer, three compasses, a map, a firstaid outfit, fuel tablets and waterproof Matches. Some of the others had a change of clothing, but wo were all wearing shorts. I was travelling light in shorts, a shirt and a jacket. I had do sleeping bag, but was lent a ground sheet before I left. It came in very Landy indeed. The others had sleeping bags and blankets. "We had two days' supply of food, having left some at Te Matawai hut as |wo were heavily laden. When we set out for Mount Holdsworth we had 31b. of bread, 21b. of jam, 20oz. of bully beef, of butter, £lb. of dried skimmilk, lib. of raisins, lib. of chocolate, two small tins of sardines, lib. of cheese, some soup powders and meat extracts, and 1£ dozen eggs, but most of the eggs were broken by falls on the journey. We ate most of our food the first day' as the weather was bad. To produce heat we ate chocolates, raisins, cheese and one tin of bully beef. This left us with one day's food for the subsequent fortnight. " There was glorious weather when i«ve left Te Matawai in the moonlight, but there was a red sunrise, which is regarded by some as a shepherd's warning of an impending change in the weather. The crossing from Te Matawai to "Mount Holdsworth has never yet been made in the winter. As we were planning to do this later we undertook the journey for the purpose of reconnoitring and finding suitable places for jpamps. Accident to Two Men " We began to encounter a tremendously strong north-westerly wind, which hlew Miss Williams and O'Keefe off the razorback ridges. By the time we reached Girdlestone the wind was very bad and terribly cold, but it was difficult to make our way along the lee Bide of the sharp ridges owing to shale jand scrub.

" A heavy mist came down upon us fet 3 p.m. when we had reached Broken Axe Pinnacles. We estimated we were then three hours' journey from Mount Holdsworth. It was here the accident happened which caused a delay of two Jiours. " Bert O'Keefe was sidling along a ridge when he slipped and fell on top of Eric Hill. They both fell about another 30 feet and slid the rest, finishing up unconscious, the weight of their packs having thrown them on their neads.

" Hill was cut behind the ear and dazed for a while. O'Keefe had gashes above ahd below the eye, and for an hour did not know where he was. Miss iWilliams bandaged his cuts and I massaged him owing to the cold. " Shivered All Night »

"The wind was so keen that we decided to stop for the night. It began .to rain. As we had torches we went into the shelter of the bush. There we crouched under a small tree. Hill slit open his waterproof bag and slung it overhead, but we were wet through and phivered all night. "Morning came to disclose we were on a steep face that dropped down into the valley. We could not see anything above us owing to the blanket of mist. .One of the primary rules of tramping is to keep to the tops and only to go into the bush for shelter. We had the alternative of sitting in the bush or going on to the tops, which was impossible owing to the weather.

"We stayed in the bush and took out bur compasses and map. Wo determined jwe were on the higher levels of the iWaiohine, just under Dorset Ridge. Jt .took us several hours to get down to what we took to be a creek, only to find sheer cliff faces. The course was starting to fill up rapidly owing to rain and we decided we would have to get out quickly. Difficult to Make Fire "We came on to a shingly beach, "where we stayed two days, piling up rocks in a triangle and spreading a sheet over them for shelter. We wore our wet clothing all through the day in an attempt to dry it with the heat of pur bodies. Our packs were wet, thus pdding to their weight. "We made a fire only with the greatest difficulty. Our sharpest instrument was a table-knife. We could not even cut a roAt with it. We had to gather what branches of dry birch we could find and hoarded twigs in our pockets. We stroked together pieces of small match-sticks to dry them. Wo could not light fires for flares until last Wednesday. Our fire resources were so •limited that we had to decide whether .we would be able to boil enough water for one or two cups of tea. "Wading do mi stream we found a rapid in one place. I was swept off my feet, but was held up by the others. We had to walk along through water in places up to our armpits and we never knew whether the next step would bring the water up to our eyebrows. We carried our 401b. packs on our heads travelling along the Dorset Creek. . Trapped in Triangle

"We had a fair idea of the days Which were passing. There was two liotirs' glorious sunshine on the first Tuesday. We made three or four miles that day, but heavy rain sot in later and the rivers rose until they were impassable. "Tie found ourselves trapped in a triangular area—on one sido the un(ordable Waiohino River, on another

the unfordable Waiohine-iti Stream, and behind us on the third side tho main range, where a blizzard was rag'nfi- Wo decided to follow down tho Waiohine-iti and looked for several days in vain for a crossing. "We were feeling very hungry tho first week, having rationed ourselves practically from the start, but we did it on scientific principles in order to secure the maximum value from tho carbohydrates. We knew the number of calories in each class of our scant quantity of food. Miss Williams being a homo science mistress. "We never ate more food daily than just sufiicient to maintain our energy and rationed it according to the amount of effort we had to expend. It was a case of: No work, no food. Some days we had a dessertspoonful of jam for breakfast. When we were forced by the weather to halt when it was snowing wo ate enough to maintain our body heat, taking half a tcaspoonful of butter every five hours, but we could not consume this on empty stomachs, and mixed it with snow and dried skim milk. Our solid meals on an average were about a spoonful a day. Sucked Moss For Water " One morning wo bad threo sardines left, so wo washed out tho tin and drank tho olive oil. We had nothing to eat at mid-days and arranged nearly all our travelling for the middle stages of the day. The jam was a real boon. We drank very little water. At times it is not easy to find water on the ridges, so we sucked a bit of moss, although we could have used snow. " Owing to tho rivers being unfordable we decided to go up the ridges across Mount Hector to Field Hut and then down to Otaki. It was raining all the time, and at 2000 ft. we sought shelter under tho roots of a fallen tree. That was about 12 days ago. "Wo abandoned the idea of crossing Mount Hector. Water just seeped through our shelter, but we were away from the wind. Our blankets wero sodden for three days and we were too frozen to move. Visibility was also bad. "We huddled together, trying to sleep, but we had not enough grip in our numbed hands to break twigs or leaves for covering. It took Bert O'Keefe one and a-half hours to put his boots, on in tho morning, as his feet wero frozen stiff. We called this place Waitomo, because of the constant trickle of water down our necks. Collapse of Miss Williams

"We spent three days there. For two days wo ate nothing except a daily spoonful of bully beef. We subsequently ascended to a height of 3000-4000 ft., reaching as far as the snowline. There again wo sheltered under a fallen tree for three days and two nights. We wero practically frozen from the hips downward.

" Miss Williams was in bad condition on the tops owing to the cold. One day slio collapsed, so wc called a halt for a while. It took us ten minutes to tie a bootlace. We tried to warm our frozen hands under our arms. We had only socks for gloves. " Realising that exposure would kill us, wo turned back. Every night was cold and miserable. When dawn camo it required a great effort to get up, in spite of our wet blankets. It was a fight against yielding to the temptation to lie there and freeze to death. "Wo got down to the Waioliiye River again and camped there at the confluence. Eventually we found very shallow rapids and managed to cross the Waiohine, starting to follow it down to the outlet. It was a distance of only 12 miles or so, but it has the worst reputation of the whole range, there being steep cliff faces with overhanging supplejack. I had once to bite my way through a supplejack, which wound itself round my neck, being unable to use my hands.

Never Gave TTp Hope " We decided to follow up and down the ridges until we got out. Last Wednesday broke clearer, but we were done in by climbing. We reached 2000 ft. Then I saw a red-nosed aeroplane circling round overhead, but the observer could not possibly see us. " Our hands were too numb to break branches and we spilled the matches. When we did get a fire going the smoke disappeared in yhe tree tops. Howe\eiv, the sight of the aeroplane was a tremendous encouragement to us. "Subsequently wa gained a clear view and knew we were making progress. Below us we saw a shingly stream bed with about two hours' good going. We never gave up hope and did not for one moment expect the journey would end in death. After we saw the aeroplane we kept goine; steadily in wet or fine weather, climbing round bare rock faces, where Bert O'Keefe often fell. VWe had to go through dense bush and at times it took us half an hour to cover 50 yards, crawling on our hands and knees, ami sometimes on our stomachs through supplejacks, rangiora and wild fuchsia. The eatable berries were not quite ripe and keikeis were not very plentiful, although we did secure an occasional bite.

"Four clays ago we finished our last solid food —4oz. of bully beef between us. After that wo lived on tea and two lemons, and even boiled a sugar bag to clean the sugar from the paper. 1 ate a lemon rind. Civilisation —and Food

"Eventually we struck a beautiful open patch and saw the footprint of a deerstalker. We could see where a search party had been in and returned. It was a wonderfully stimulating sight to see real English grass on Totara. Flat. We thought in a few hours our troubles would be over, but we still had two more days' travelling round cliff faces.

"We were finally within 100 yards of a farm land when we encountered a pig. hunter, Mr. W. Smith, who notified a following party of young men and girls. At first they were sceptical about our identity. We crossed the river bj' tl'ie old Cradle. It amused us to hear their admonitions to be careful as we climbed round the rock faces — after doing it for a fortnight. However, it was a real delight to secure some tomato and date sandwiches, which we Eite ravenously. We had given us also eggs, milk and orange juice." Pluck of Woman Tramper

Suffering severe privations throughout, all the members of the party returned haggard and much lighter in weight. Dr. Sutcli, who travelled on very short rations in Turkestan and Afghanistan, being the most seasoned, came out best, showing amazing vitality. Dr. Sutch said Mi ss Williams showed remarkable bush sense, her advice always being right. She had shown an indomitable spirit and was carried along on her nervous energy. O'Keefe, aged 23, was the youngest of the party. He was not so seasoned as the others and suffered terribly. At one stage cf the climb to Mount Hector he had to halt every 50ft. He was very determined, dogged and plucky, but suffered intensely from the cold. His frost-bitten feet were black. Dr. Sutch did his best to massage them with his torn, bleeding hands. It took five davs to thaw out O'Keefe's frozen feet.

RECALLING SEARCHERS TRAIN ENGINE WHISTLES [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION*] "WELLINGTON, Monday It will take several days before all the Tararua searchers can be recalled. About 35 members of tramping clubs are still in the ranges. The Railway Department lias instructed engine-drivers to give three blasts while passing the ranges. Whistles are said to be audible in 1 almost all parts of the Tararuas. Altogether 100 persons have taken part in the search.