BOGGED IN BUSH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 862, 4 January 1930, Page 8

BOGGED IN BUSH

THREE BOYS AND A DOG STRENUOUS MOTOR TRIP From Our Own Correspondent HAMILTON, Friday. A story of misadventure and hardship combined with grit and determination is told by three Hamilton High School boys whose experiences over the New Year are unique. At an early hour last Saturday morning Len Keat, of Frankton, Keith and Jack. McKinnon, of Claudelands, and a big collie dog, left Raglan in a light car for Kawhia, where they hoped to arrive at a friend's home for breakfast. Although warned against taking the road through Te Mata, which dwindles to nothing more than a bridle track over rough bush country, they believed they could manage the journey. Hardly had they left Te Mata when the first of a long series of troubles started. They struck a heavy slip and got badly bogged, the car sinking half out of sight, and it took nearly an hour and forty minutes to get out again. They were in a similar plight on six more occasions, and the exertions of the engine used up all the water in the radiator.. By walking a mile or more to the nearest stream and using straw hats as containers the lads were able to get going again. Tea-time came with Kawhia many miles away, and the car proceeding through a heavy grey mist and dense bush. About 9 p.m. they arrived within a few miles of the metalled rr»ad which would see them safely into Kawhia, but their little “bus” refused to pull them up a stiff, muddy rise. Two of the youths set off to look for the nearest house for assistance, and after a six-mile walk found a friendly settler who appeased their tortured appetites. The boys reached their destination shortly after 11 p.m., after a journey of 26 miles, which took 16 hours to accomplish. Tired to the point of exhaustion, the trio staggered among some gorse bushes leading up a steep slope to the house which offered them hospitality. In Hamilton two sets of anxious parents were in constant telephone communication with each other, inquiring for word of the boys who had been expected back in Ham ilton in time for dinner that evening. The car, on reaching here the following evening, was a sight. The hood was down and the vehicle was a dense mass of mud. Three woe-begone youths, also caked with mud, sat in the front seat wearing what remained of their straw boaters. The rough-haired dog, with the air of a protector, sat at the back. They had come through a chapter of accidents such as few boys have experienced over the holidays.