IN TARARUA’S GRIP

Taranaki Daily News, 3 May 1933, Page 9

IN TARARUA’S GRIP

NARRATIVE OF LEADER PERILOUS EXPERIENCES. FIGHT AGAINST HARDSHIPS. . COULD NOT LIGHT A FIRE. Palmerton N., May 1. In an interview last evening, Mr. E. Hill, leader of the missing tramping party, gave a graphic description of the hardships and difficulties they had to face in their struggle to make their way out of the precipitous mountain country in which they found themselves, when driven down from the tops of the ranges by the weather. Mr. Hill stated that at no time were they lost. They had their, map and knew that they were following down the Waiohine River, but had ho conception of the difficulties that they would be up against in trying to find their way out. “We left Te Matawai Hut about four o’clock on the morning of Saturday, April 15,” said . Mr. Hill, “and by three o’clock ,in the afternoon had got as far as Broken Axes Pinnacle. FALL DOWN CLIFF. “It was tijere that O’Keefe slipped and, in an endeavour to save himself, pushed into me. We both went down about 40 When I found my legs I looked round for O’Keefe and asked him how he was, and found his face was covered with blood. He had an uglygash on his forehead and others on his chin and nose.’ We plastered them up with sticking plaster and I gave him my balaclava, which he wore for the rest of the time, For a week later he had a beautiful, black eye as well. “It was this accident that was the initial cause of our misfortune. We , reckoned we had left Te Matawai in sufficient time to get to Mount Holdsworth Hut before it was dark. When \ O’Keefe got hurt we were delayed two hours until he found his fefet again, and if> was this two hours that we needed, when darkness descended and we were compelled to go down io the bush to bivouac. The fog was thick, but we carried on through it. A DIFFICULT JOURNEY. “Next day we dropped down to the Waiohine, with the intention of following it down, and to our surprise found that it ran through a precipitous gorge with a sheer face of 200 ft, and only a few feet wide. However, by hanging on to the overgrowth, we managed to . get down, but we did not get out of ~ this gorge until mid-day: on Monday. ; There were a few shingle beaches, which K were not more than a few yards long at the best of times. < • "We waded down, ; up to our armpits, / until Thursday, covering six or seven miles. Going seemed -so impossible that I thought’ that if, we climbed back again to, the top ,of the main range, south of Crawford,, we might get on to * the Hector track. We got to a height of /about 2000 feet, where we had to spend three nights and two days under the roots of a fallen tree, the only additional shelter being my sleeping bag, which I cut and spread out as a leanto. It proved very serviceable and kept off much rain, wind and sleet. Those three night were very miserable and dirty. • ' a "WE WERE TRAPPED.” - , . "It was .at this stage that my faith i . In the law of averages ; sadly.-failed me. ; I had reckoned that we could anticipate at least one, day fine after six had been wet, but instead of that it got worse. We called this place Waitomo Caves, • because of-the glow worms that hung around the roots of the tree. Then we went *up to about 3300 ft, and camped for the night, and. then it snowed. “We could not light a fire because everything was sodden. We stayed there Sunday night and had to wait till Tuesday before we could get higher. However, we found the snow near the top was two feet deep and it would

have been absolute suicide for us to try to get over to the Hector track in the condition we were in. O’Keefe’s feet were black and my own were like walking on my ankles as a result of the cold. Had we tried to camp one night in the snow we would never have lasted it out. We were trapped between snow and the flooded river below.” “We dropped: back to the river reluctantly, but further downstream near where, the Waiohine-iti joins the Waiohine,” said Mr. Hill, “we spent the night on tile ridge just above the confluence of the two rivers. ‘"That was the night of Anzac Day. On the Monday one of the party had mentioned that to-morrow would be Anzac Day and I pictured in my .mind all the schoolchildren parading, each carrying a saveloy instead of a flag. I suppose it was because I was hungry, but those saveloys kept recurring to me, even at night when I was trying to get to sleep. I would have given ‘quids’ for one at the time. “It was. next , day, Wednesday, that we heard the aeroplane go over, but we did not see it. I immediately started a fire ‘ in some dry birch, but by the time the smoke got above the bush it i had been dispersed. That was the only occasion on which an areoplane was heard, - which . can be accounted for by the continual roar of the river through the gorges blotting out all other sounds. . DIFFICULT CLIMBING. “We dropped down to the river but found we had to climb up again almost immediately as there was no river beach, and although we may have been able to scramble along the sides of the gorge we had to consider O’Keefe, whose feet were troubling him. “During the following days we climbed up scores of places almost vertical. On the Wednesday we experienced a beautiful day and were able to dry our- clothes and gear. It was very comforting to be dry for the first time for days andit considerably helped us in our progress. Miss Williams is a remarkable climber for a girl, and Bill Sutch was in great form. Really, Morva •—Miss ¥711113103 —was the best of the lot of us in a way, but O’Keefe was not a good rock climber, and fell on one occasion, inflicting a severe gash in his nose.” CAMPING AT NIGHT. , Mr. Hill said. theyhad to discard Miss Williams’ sleeping bag when on the top of the ridge, as it had got soaked, and in that condition weighed almost 301 b. At night the four of them got as close together as they could, so as to keep warm, with their feet in their packs to keep out the wet and the cold. Each night they made a point of camping early in the best available spot, so that they would not be caught by the darkness in any place where camping would have been difficult. They realised the necessity of conserving their strength to the utmost. To pass the time away they talked of books, but their chief topic was menu, cards and joking as to which- hotel they would go to that night for dinner. The secenery was magnificent, and had they been on an ordinary jaunt they would have enjoyed it immensely.

Waterfalls were discovered 150 feet high, while the famous drop scene on the Wanganui River was reproduced scores of times. JUBILATION SHORT LIVED. “Eventually,” said Mr. Hill, .‘‘we reached Totara Flats, which is in the nature of a plateau some 3000 acres in extent right in the middle of the ranges. There was a herd of steers there grazing and we thought we were not far from civilisation. However, we were doomed to disappointment, for , after following the stream across the flats we discovered that it disappeared hi a gorge similar to those we had just come through. - “Our jubliation, as you can imagine, when we left camp on the flats on Saturday morning was short-lived. We had to encounter the same difficulty in this gorge until we eventually struck a cleared ridge, which indicated that we were hi settled country. The slopes were covered with wild growth, which entailed constant pushing our way through. It was tough going and in our weakened condition was beginning to tell on us.” “At Totara Flats,” continued Mr. Hill, “we saw footprints in the sand, and thought probably we had been missed by the searchers who had evidently gone oyer this part of the country a few hours ahead of us. . “It was while we were making our. way through the wild growth that I heard a voice, and I tell you it was heaven to hear it.. It came from a man on the other side of the stream, who asked me' if I knew where the Cradle, was. He evidently thought I was ' a deer-stalker as, on second thoughts, .he asked, me if I was one of the missing trampers. LUXURY OF A HOUSE. “I told him I was, and he rushed to a party of trampers of the Carterton Tramping Club, mostly girls, who were hiking up the valley. They seemed to scoff at the idea when we first told them,, but it was not long before they hurried round us and gave up all the help they could, as well as much-needed food. We gave them a good exhibition of rock, climbing when we came down the scrub-covered slopes of the riverbank.” Mr. Hill added facetiously:. They seemed to be scared that we might fall in the last lap of our hazardous journey. We then went down the river to Mr. Compton’s farm,” he said, “where we were further cared for. I got a muchneeded wash and Miss Williams went to sleep for a couple of hours. O’Keefe and Dr. Sutch and Miss Williams en- 1 joyed the luxury of a ride on a horse down to Mr. Compton’s. “From there we were taken by car to Carterton, where a great crowd warmly cheered us. O’Keefe was later taken to Wellington,’ while the rest of us were brought to Palmerston North. ALL BREAD SOON USED. Mr. Hill said they decided to ration their food right from the very start Bread ran out on the fourth day. Thereafter they existed for a while on a. concoction of butter, sugar and jam. Then they decided that an anti-sweet meal would be delicious, so they made up a mixture of dried milk, butter, snow and beef- extract, and it was “awful tack.” They had to suck a lemon to get rid of the taste. Another meal consisted of an ounce of beef each. Mr. Hill said he had 14 eggs when the accident happened on'the first day out, and O’Keefe had 10. Six or seven were broken when they fell, and with these they made a large eggnogg and had quite a good meal. The last egg was used last Saturday week, a dozen or more having lasted them 14 days. “I always take eggs on a tramp,” said Mr. Hill, “because they are both liquid and food,' and I, have found it is liquid that is needed most One day we had three sardines each and tile tins were licked dry. When we opened our last tin of bully-beef six days ago we ate half of it, four ounces.” ‘. Mr. Hill stated that to start their fires they used fuel tablets, and when these were finished they used pieces of candle. In spite of the atrocious weather and the fact that they had to stay in wet clothes, none had contracted a cold. Mr. Hill said his oilskin had been split to ribbons by the undergrowth. Miss Williams summed up the position very aptly when she said they finished up on a tin of jam and a map with all the colours washed but of it.