ACROSS COUNTRY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17918, 24 October 1932, Page 8

ACROSS COUNTRY

KAIMAI TO GISBORNE THE SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE Commissioned by the National Geographical Society to do three trips through little-known parts of New Zealand on foot, an interesting visitor is in Rotorua at present, This is Mr. 14. S. R. Cameron, a young New Zealander, who is on his way from the. Kaimai road to Gisborne taking a direct compass route across country. That the trip is by no means without its adventures may be realised when it is known that he was picked up with a strained knee on the side of the main road some three miles the other side of Mnmaliu after having struggled out of a deep gully into which he had fallen. Mr. Cameron’s work is to write a description of the trip and to take photographs for the society’s records, and oil bis way back —be expects the trip to lake at least two months—-be intends to follow To Kooti’s track to Tauranga, which lias gone down in Maori annals as one of the hardest trails followed by a tana. TRAVELLING LIGHT Lean, browned and lit, Mr. Cameron gives tlio impression of, one to whom hardships would be as salt, and he evidently enjoys every minute of his battle with Nature. For provisions be lives upon the game he can kill and carries the bare minimum of supplies. His larder consists of 151 b of prunes, 41b of dates, 21b of brewers’ malt, lib of cocoa, lib of coffee, two tins of milk (for extra special celebrations, as he whimsically terms it). He also carries a Browning .35 automatic rifle and 120 ft. of rope. It was when the rope slipped in the leafy mould of the gully side that he hurt his knee. “I’ll tell you one of the most sustaining things I know,” said Mr. Cameron to a Rotorua Post representative as he lit his pipe, “and that is a couple of teaspoonfuls of malt and a spoonful of cocoa, with boiling water poured over it. That will stick to you better than solid stuff.” HARD, HEAVY GOING Speaking of the epuntry traversed, Mr. Cameron stated that he had some idea- of the terrain, for he held his Hying certificates and hail several times flown over the route which lie intended to take, and had a rough idea of the general lay of the ground. From the Kaimai road lie had started on October 15 and the first day had made a inarch which in a straight fiat line measured lour miles; by the route he had to take it was much further. 110 had got to the Raparapa Stream and there camped for the night. Sitting by his fire he saw a pig silhouetted against tlio skyline, and the Browning did the rest. A NEW TROUT STREAM “1 might mention for the benefit of anglers,” said Mr. Cameron, “that the Raparapa is an ideal stream for trout. I caught a beauty there last season. He went just under ,101 b. On Saturday night I saw in one of the big black pools three fish rising and not one of them could have been under seven pounds in weight. “Where the Raparapa joins the Waiomo Stream is, 1 think, the prettiest spot I have ever seen m New Zealand,” said Mr. Cameron. “The Raparapa comes out through a canyon of about half a mile long between rock walls 70 to 80ft. high. It is a beautiful place.” TWO MORE TRIPS Mr. Cameron, when be has completed ibis trip, has two others to do for the society. One is to trace the Wanganui River from its source to its mouth on mot and the other is even more ambitious. He is to tramp down one side of the whole length of the Southern Alps and to return along the other, surely a trip of some magnitude. LINK WITH FAMOUS EXPLORER One part of Mr. Cameron’s equipment is particularly interesting, and that is jus cartridge belt. Holding 60 rounds, it is made from the green-taimed skin ot the Marco Polo sheep (Ovis Marco Polo), which was discovered by that intrepid, explorer of old time in'Mongolia. A man who had also tramped through unknown parts, Osscndow.ski, author of “Men. Boasts and Gods,” gave it to Mr. Ca Micron, and lie treasures it highly. His pack weighs about 701 b, anil he carries no fly or tent, but sleeps in a calico hammock with a waterproof sheet over him.

His is an adventurous life, full of incident and before him is ever the lure of the unknown.