ON CYCLES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3264, 17 May 1943, Page 8

ON CYCLES

GIRLS’ EASTER EXPLOIT TRIP INTO KING COUNTRY PROFIT MADE ON JOURNEY An adventurous Easter cycling trip into the wilds of the King Country, which cost nothing except a battle against a head wind both ways and even won for them a penny each, was the unusual exploit of two New Plymouth girls. 'Both girls had the holiday to spare. They tried to arrange transport. Nothing was available. So, with a determined look, they strapped packs with provisions on their bicycles and on Good Friday morning set off from New Plymouth. With a head wind driving in their faces the road seemed long, with a disconcerting way of winding upwards. The wind they could not escape, but the rain they did. On hills which in calmer weather they could have cycled up they were obliged to dismount and instead of the easy joy of careering downwards after reaching the top they had to pedal furiously. Mt. Messenger was a hurdle that was walked up in half an hour and cycled down in 10 minutes. > Dodged The Rain Luck was with them throughout the trip so far as rain was concerned. They dodged it all the way. “When

we got to Waitara the streets were streaming with water,” said one cyclist. “But we were dry. We never actually ran into rain. It was either ahead of us or behind us.” ' While there was little traffic on the road and any passing cars were laden, the girls had the good fortune to meet a car from New Plymouth just before reaching Uruti. The occupants relieved them of their packs, which they took through to Mokau. When the weary but cheerful cyclists arrived there at five o’clock to collect their packs, the same people entertained them to tea and billetted them in their seaside 'bach for the night. ■On Saturday morning they set off once more, through Awakino to Waikawau, the hills in this part of the journey being the most tedious of the trip, but the countryside offering its reward in glorious scenery and bush. At Waikawau they branched off to the home of friends, where they had lunch. ' Borrowed Horses Here the girls left their bicycles and borrowed horses for the remaining 10 miles, along a clay road which two years ago was suitable for cai traffic, but now, owing to the war, is only a bridle track in parts. They were escorted for five miles by a Maori and his two sons. The fathei had a remarkable knowledge of native trees, which he studied at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth. A heavy tree had fallen across the track at the fivemile point, and the Maoris chopped off branches so that they could lead

their horses past. Moeatoa, their destination, was reached in triumph. Profit on Trip “Here we made a profit on the trip,” stated the cyclists with a laugh. “We won a penny each at cards.” The cyclists’ stay at Moeatoa was short. At 4 a.m. the following day they breakfasted, and, saddling their horses in bright moonlight with squalls of rain, found to their dismay that the wind had veered right round, in the night and was to face them all the way. They rode back the way they had come, regained their bicycles and rode to the Waikawau junction, where they scored a 24-mile ride on a cream lorry to Mokau, where their former newly-made friends again relieved them of their packs for the rest of the way to New Plymouth. Breaks at farmhouses on the way for refreshments were the only interruptions of the return journey, except for a novel “lift” from a few miles outside New Plymouth. Here they met two Air Force men with leave for the evening, scanning the road wistfully for a lift. The “lift” came, but they had to earn it by double-banking the girls against the wind into town.

When the girls arrived home they had travelled 136 miles by bicycle, 24 by cream lorry and 20 on horseback; but, most important, they had got there —and back.