CAMPING GEAR WAS WASHED DOWN STREAM

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18972, 20 January 1930, Page 8

CAMPING GEAR WAS WASHED DOWN STREAM

PARTY AT SELWYN GORGE HAD NARROW ESCAPE. Two Sumner motoring parties during the week-end visited the Selwyn Gorge, behind Whitecliffs, to render assistance to their friends who recently, in the floods, so narrowly escaped with their lives. The first made its way via Sheffield and the Homebush road to Whitecliffs, and, after crossing the last bridge, soon found many evidences of the disastrous nature of the flood. The main highway to the farm owned by Mr Doody had been entirely obliterated for many chains, leaving nothing but a deeplyrutted riverbed of boulders. The ford beyond had been swept completely away and the entire riverbed altered, extensive areas being either eroded away or covered with silt and debris. No such heavy flooding had taken place for twenty-four years, the last having occurred in September, 1905, when the river then, in its lower reaches, wrought havoc in the Ellesmere district. The plight of the campers on the night of the flood was more serious than had been expected. The whole valley became inundated, the waters reaching above the stretches and smothering the remaining bedding with silt and slime. The fourteen campers escaped just in time, and, making a remarkably fortunate escape through the roaring flood, took refuge on a reef of rotten rock about two feet above the water. They remained there, drenched to the skin, for two hours before daylight enabled them to climb the low cliff and reach the tussocky hill above. Since the flood waters subsided, search parties have scoured the riverbed, and clothes, bedding, a wire mattress, a rug, and sufficient equipment has been salvaged and cleaned to enable the camp to “carry on.” Some of the gear was found two miles away, the residents nearby assisting most kindly. One section of the camp, however, has suffered a loss of about £SO. Amongst one of the first things found after the desperate midnight encounter with the storm was a gramophone disc with the song title, “O, Lovely Night.” This was picked up at the foot of a willow tree. Yesterday a camp stool was hooked up from the creek by a searcher wading in a bathing costume. Mr E. A. Johnson speaks in terms of deep appreciation of all the help rendered. When he paid a visit last Thursday and signified his intention of trying to approach the camp by driving towards the hills, the foreman of the County Council staff immediately accompanied him with a repair gang and removed sufficient of a big slip to let him through. The second party made its way from Sheffield via the Hartley Downs Road at the Waikeki Valley. Here also were many traces of the flood. The roads were scored to pieces in many patches. Hillside crops were washed over the roads, potato paddocks were ruined, the land in the valley in several places littered with silt and rubbish. The party found the drive remarkably pretty, withal, and at the end of ten miles descended by a steep and badlyscoured cutting to the Selwyn near the camp. From this spot, a half-hour’s tramp over steep hills enabled them to join their friends. This party covered the ground over which the campers escaped, and were astounded that they had travelled over such a trail without very serious results.