EXERCISE OF OPEN ROAD

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 6

EXERCISE OF OPEN ROAD

SEEING NEW ZEALAND AFOOT

LONG TRIP BY MIDDLE-AGED MAN.

INSPIRED BY EXAMPLE OF A GIRL.

“If a girl can do it I can, said Mr. E. S. Day, Auckland, who has many more years to his credit, and he with set off on a tramping tour of New Zealand, in the course of which he stopped at New Plymouth yesterday afternoon. He was inspired by example of Miss Esther James who tramped from the top to the bottom of the Dominion some time ago. Yesterday Mr. Day walked from Uruti to New Plymouth, no mean step for a man of 59 years. By doing so he completed half his journey m scheduled time. He intends to make the trip from Auckland to Wellington in 18 days, and it is now only nine days since he left Auckland on February 9, so that he should have no difficulty in arriving at Wellington by the appointed date. A hardware merchant by occupation, Mr. Day has given up business and now seeks the health that the exercise of the open road brings. He looked Particularly fit as he strode into New Plymouth yesterday bronzed and clear-eyed, and with a firm tread. He did not mind admitting he was weary, however. It would be a good man who could walk from Uruti and not be. . . Prior to setting out on this journey from Auckland to Milford Sound Mr. Day had a practice canter about. North Auckland to see if he could stand up to travelling on foot, as he had never attempted anything in the way of a hike before then. He set out from Auckland on January 7, walked to Kaitaia, up Ninety Mile Beach and on to spirit s Bay, returning inland south to Awanui, and thence by the coast road to Mangonui, Whangaroa, Bay of Islands and back to Auckland. Satisfied that he was in form Mr. Day left Auckland southwards on February 9. He followed the main road to the south, arriving at Awakino late last Wednesday night. He left on Thursday morning and stopped that night at Uruti-, which he left yesterday morning at 5.30 a.m., reaching New Plymouth at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. He will go on this morning for Stratford. Jrom Wellington Mr. Day will cross to Picton, and his itinerary thence will be Murchison, Buller River, Otira Gorge, Geraldine, Fairlie, Queenstown, Glenorchy, Glade House, Clinton Valley, Milford track, Milford Sound, Lake Te Anau, Lake Manapouri, Lumsden, Gore, Balclutha, Dunedin, Timaru and Christchurch, ferry boat back to Wellington and back to Auckland by coastal steamer. Altogether the trip should last from eight to ten weeks. Mr. Day carries with him his blankets and ground sheet in case he is forced to sleep out, but he generally arranges his itinerary so as to reach a town by nightfall, where accommodation can be obtained. For his meal during the past few days he has been living on Taranaki milk, for which he is full of praise. Factories have supplied him with a .billy full of it, and a tribute to its food value is the fact that he goes all the afternoon on a liquid midday lunch. He carries a notebook endorsed day by day with the signatories of the Mayors, 1 town clerks or postal officials of the places he has passed through as a record of his journey.