Former resident returns for brief visit

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 10, 9 August 1983, Page 3

Former resident returns for brief visit

A former resident of the Waimarino recently spent a nostalgic week renewing old memories, looking up old friends and covering old tracks on the mountain. She was Mrs Olive Bunce, now 67 years of age and living in Geraldine, South Canterbury. But locals will remember her better as Olive Shout, daughter of Tom Shout who was a Parks Board warden for ^nore than 20 years. Hp Mrs Bunce was born in ^Taihape but moved with her family to live in Raetihi in 1918 when she was only 2-years old. They moved into a house which had survived the great fire of 1918 and which still stands on the Parapara Road opposite the present Raetihi swimming baths. Olive Shout, as she was then, attended the Raetihi School for her primary education before moving on to the Ohakune District

High School (now Ruapehu College). From there she went to Wellington to attend Teachers Training College in 1936 and a year or so after qualifying she married Leslie Bunce, an electrician in Ohakune. They moved to Te Awamutu and had four children before Mrs Bunce was able to return to teaching — she taught at Te Awamutu College for 10 years after the family had grown up. During her younger days in the Waimarino Olive was a keen climber and tramper and was often seen accompanying her father who, in the early '30s, helped form the Tongariro Tramping Club. She was also a keen cyclist and with her friends, explored much of the Waimarino on her bicycle using unformed tracks that are now roadways.

On this return visit she resorted again to a borrowed bicycle to travel round Ohakune and Raetihi to visit old friends, make new ones and generally take in the changing scene. Last week's return visit was the first to the Waimarino since the early '70's. Olive Bunce, who has travelled widely since she left the Waimarino — Europe, East Africa, India, the Himalayas, Kashmir, Iran — was pleased to have had this opportunity to return to the Waimarino . . she was staying with her daughter Helen Irwin in Ohakune. Helen is married to Lisle Irwin, Ohakune's senior ranger. Asked when she is planning another return visit, Mrs Bunce said there was some talk of the Tongariro Tramping Club staging a 50th reunion next autumn and if that happened she would certainly be coming back to the Waimarino then.