"IT ALL SEEMS LIKE A NIGHTMARE"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 10, 3 September 1931, Page 3

"IT ALL SEEMS LIKE A NIGHTMARE"

Press Association-

-"POst" Speeial Service.

GRAFHIC STORY miss brockett relates experiences on mount ruapehu . tale of simple courage

— nnnvrisrht.

By Telephone—

THE CHATEAU, Wednesday. - "It all seems Iike a nightmare now," said Miss Esme Brockett when interviewed this afternoon when she awalcened from 14 hours' sleep. Miss Brockett was propped up in bed with pillows at her back and was just finnishing a three course luncheon. "We just w'andered aimlessly on," she said when questioned regarding her experiences. "We felt that evenif we could not find our way out, searchers would find us. When the aeroplane came over yesterday, that gave us hope. We did not discuss our chances of getting out; we purposely kept off the subject. I somehow felt that I couldn't be bothered discussing it. "We were cold," she eontinued. "I don't think we stopped shivering all the time we were up there. The cold was harder to bear than hunger. Spealcing for myself, I did not feel particularly hungry until I found that food was within reach. I really enjoyed a hot drink more than food. We spent part of the time that we were in the bush planning mcnus. The popular ide'a was to go right through a menu. Some of them even thought of working back again. "Our clothes were soaking wet all the time we were out. We had no matches, so could not light a fire. One boy did have some safety matches but they were wet and someone had some wax ones, but' they were dropped while 'being passed to one of the boys in the darkness and were lost. "On the secon'd and third days, we depended on getting out ourselves, but on the last day we just waited for help. The first day one of the girls had a bet with a boy that we would get in before mid-night. I think he

only did it to keep her spirits up. At no time, though, did we think we would not eithef find our way out or be found. Or, if anjmne felt we would not, they did not mention it. I felt eonfident myself. The weather was bad all the time we were out. First it would rain, then snow, then hail. The second night out we slept under the trees, but on the third night Mr "Jock" Graham made a sort of shelter, but he made it in the darkness and every time we moved it fell to pieces. "Shortly before we were found, Mr Graham and Miss Morris left us. Graham thought he knew a way out and we didn't want him to go alone so Miss Morris went as she was the fittest. My knee had given-out and I could only crawl, so I did not want o waste my energy.' Mr Harris was done in as he had been doing a great deal of running about trying to find a way out. The arrival of the searchers a few hours after Mr Graham and Miss Morris left us was one of the most welcome sights I have ever seen," concluded Miss Brockett.