TRAMP TO WANGANUI RIVER

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1932, Page 6

TRAMP TO WANGANUI RIVER

WHANGAMOMONA MEN’S OUTING. PIGS AND BUSH SCENERY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Seventeen iniles from Whangamomona the Wanganui River swirls past a little beach known as the Tangarakau landing. It is here that the Tangarakau River joints the Wanganui, and it was here, in the early days before the settlement of Aotuhia was connected by road with Whangamomona, that stores were landed from the river boats and packed through the virgin bush to the homesteads, four, six and seven miles away. • With the advent of a good metalled road the track is no longer used, and is overgrown with ferns reaching shoulder high. In places huge tree trunks lie across the narrow path, while a ten-foot wide gorge with a twenty-foot drop on to jagged tree trunks is negotiable only by a small round log. All along the track are evidences of wild pigs, the ground in places being ploughed up to an amazing extent.

Mt was along this track that a party comprising Messrs. McAllister, Gillespie, Frewin, Pat Callaghan, and L. Robinson, made their way last week-end. Motoring thirteen miles over a narrow, but good road, through rugged and picturesque country, the party left the comforts of the car and commenced the four-mile hike to the river; For a mile the track was easily negotiated as it wound round the side of a long valley becoming more bush clad each step. Light rain began to fall, but the trampers were not so easily discouraged, and in a few minutes reached the place where the track merges into the bush. The sense of shelter was quickly dispelled when they had gone a hundred yards, as the ferns were veritable shower baths. Then the mud became apparent, because unable to see where one’s feet were going, it was impossible to dodge the soft spots where the pigs had churned the ground into a bog. After a very arduous time with risks of slipping down some hundreds of feet the trampers were rewarded with a beautiful view of the Wanganui River, with its fem-clad banks, while on a small clearing overlooking the river were a clump of cherry trees laden with ripe fruit. The sun was now shining, and the party regaled themselves with a feast of cherries, before sliding through the fem and mud to the river level. Rain fell again, but a fire was lit, and with hot tea and refreshments, all felt cheerful. A short stay, and the party commenced the return trip, stopping at the cherries for a while, before plunging into the dense wet undergrowth. After they had arrived at the car, drenched with rain and spattered with mud, no time was lost in proceeding to Mr. E. G. Callaghan’s, Aotuhia, where they were most hospitably entertained, arid made comfortable in dry clothing. During tea, Mr. Callaghan related some of his experiences with packhorses over the track just traversed, and it was not difficult to realise the hardships endured by the settlers who broke ground with their bush holdings at Aotuhia. Later in the evening the party re-dormed their clothes, now dried from the heat of a large log fire, and returned to Whangamomona satisfied that the day had been a thoroughly enjoyable if * strenuous outing.