HOLIDAY ON HORSEBACK

Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1933, Page 4

HOLIDAY ON HORSEBACK

500 MILES IN THREE WEEKS. YOUNG WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES. On the last lap of a three weeks’ 500 miles horseback holiday at a cost of 30s ,each, Mrs. A. Smith and Miss E. Glasgow, of Turakina, passed through Wanganui last Thursday. They had a bright [story to tell of their experiences and ■ said the holiday had been “simply marvellous.” Taking the whole of the trip, the riders averaged about 44 miles a day, but on their first day in the saddle they rode for IS hours, from six o’clock until midnight, to- cover 64 miles. Their, route ; lay. through Mangamahu to Rangiwaea, to National Park, Taumarunui, Ongarue, 'Te Kuiti and Hamilton. Thence they irode through Fiopio, Ohura, Whangai momona, Stratford, • Hawera, WaitotaTa ■and-thus home. ! . All through the trip the hospitality shown to the horsewomen was wonderifui, and on all sides they received the greatest of-kindness and help. At private homes they had a most hospitable reception, and in the back country—the “Never-Never,” as they described it—men employed at mines, on Public Works undertakings and on road construction had extended to them numerous kindnesses.

At times, said Mrs. Smith, they had been offered a cup of tea, and that in the middle.of a ride which took them miles and miles without the sight of anyone meant a great deal, not to mention cheery talk and valuable advice about routes and unused tracks. Much of their ride lay through old roads that had fallen into disuse, over bridges that were badly holed and past fallen culverts, at which the horses looked with a wary eye.

In their ride the two young women met adventure in many ways, danger in the rough tracks, mud deep to the horses’ girths, but they were lucky in that they had only three days’ rain. Clothing was light. They took with them “pyjamas, a tooth-brush, make-up and an oilskin —Of course.” Throughout the whole of the journey they did not change their horses, which had not been hard fed either before or during the trip. They finished in fine condition, with plenty of life. All the way, said Miss Glasgow, they had tended their horses first and had travelled where possible mainly in the early part of the day and rested toward* noon, to continue later. It was a case* of out of bed with the dawn and away at. half-past five or earlier, long before breakfast.

“It was rather hard at times riding for hours on a stale bun as breakfast,” said. Mrs. Smith. “We wondered how long it would last then, but some of the dinners we had made up for the little we had in the early part of the day.” Many little experiences the adventurers told of in .their bright way, with the happy smiles that must have meant much to some who had not seOn strangers for weeks; Out from one centre, away in the backblocks, they Were told by'men'employed on construction work that they had not seen girls for six months. At some places they had stayed the night with friends, but at most it had meant seeing to their horses, a bath, a, meal. and. bed. Three days in' Hamilton had given their horses a rest and had given them a break from the days in the saddle that had been welcomed, accustomed to it though they were by then.

From Te Kuiti to Stratford was the most interesting portion of the journey. In that area the riders saw the native bush at its best, pungas that made them think of stories of the tropics, and also a touch of the past pioneer in the grave of Mason, a surveyor, who had blazed the trail through the Tangarakau Gorge. It lay a little back from a bridge with an inscription that told a' silent story of how he. had been laid to rest by his comrades in the land of his labour.