TAKING A HOLIDAY TRIP BY CAR TO NATIONAL PARK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 90, 23 May 1949, Page 5

TAKING A HOLIDAY TRIP BY CAR TO NATIONAL PARK

Some .holidays even start better than others. Undoubtedly it depends on the weather when you leave home and how late you finish packing. Anyway some go better than others but it didn’t for two Whakatane residents who recently visited National Park. A “glorious” trip. Here is their own description: “It rained heavily and blew hard all night. We should have had more sense and postponed our departure, but then sensible people miss a lot of fun. In the morning the weather showed signs of improving, so we set off in high spirits. All went well until we reached Rotoiti, where a roadman gave us the depressing news of slips ahead, five miles of them, and we might be held up for four hours.

“This was a blow, as we had planned to have lunch at Taupo. On reaching Emery’s Store we found a large collection of cars, buses and lorries all resigned to waiting. I expect Mr Emery wouldn’t mind if there were slips every day, as his store sibaply boomed. “Eventually a bulldozer arrived and the long caterpillar of cars moved off. As each slip was cleared we crawled along a bit further. Our dreams of lunch at Taupo had faded long ago, but we still had hopes of dinner at the Chateau. “Sometime after leaving Rotorua, and round a sharp bend, a horrible sight came into view. Several graders, a few bulldozers and a gang of men were all very busy making a large mud pie. They were not good cooks, the dough wasa bit too thin. We were the filling for that pie, and it took four strong men to ladel us out.

“Surely that is the last of our troubles we thought, and apart from a very sticky hill the car bowled along merrily, but we didn’t bargain on floods. Nearing the southern end of Lake Taupo, two stretches of road under water were safely negotiated and then we met a bridge. It looked very nasty, a muddy stream racing across the centre. “Past that however, we could see a collection of people and another caterpillar of cars. These signs on a road usually spell trouble. On getting out we found trouble, and plenty of it. A large washout, knee deep and about four feet deep rushing with fury across the road. There were two lorries busy towing cars across. It was a relief to see smaller cars than ours in there. Gradually our turn came; as the anly woman driver in the queue, I was asked if I could manage it. .

“ “Rather, if my car has to be smashed up I’d like to do it myself thank you.” “At last our turn came. It was soon over and we were on our way again. “It was almost dark by this time and our dreams of dinner at the Chateau had faded. At Turangi a debate arose, should we stay or should we go on. The ons had it. It rained, it blew, then it rained some more. We seemed to be going on forever in the darkness.

“Then began the upward climb, but fate still had a last trick up her sleeve for us. Fog now began to drift across the road, thickening as we climbed higher.

“Running over a flower bed in the fog was a detail not worthy of another thought. We had arrived. Our holiday had begun.”