LONG RIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 March 1939, Page 9

LONG RIDE

" TWO YOUNG LADIES TOUR ON HORSEBACK. NOVEL WAY OF SEEING NEW ZEALAND. (“Times-Age” Special.) * Two young ladies from Yorkshire, England, who arrived in New Zealand recently have set out. to see the sights of the North Island by way of horseback). They are Miss Flora Jordan and Miss W. 'Pilson. After visiting Auckland, and finding themselves at Katikati in the Bay of Plenty, they decided to purchase two ponies from a farmer with the intention of touring the North Island by horseback. After leaving Katikati they travelled by way of Gisborne, Wairoa, Napier,'Woodville, Bush Districts, to the Wairarapa, and then proceeded over the Rimutakas, and through ithe Akatarawa Gorge to Otaki. Thence they will travel north again through Palmerston North, to New Plymouth, thence via Mt Messenger, to Katikati, where the ponies will be handed over to the original owner. They will see other places by rail and car prior to returning home. The morning after leaving Katikati they could not find their ponies. Thinking they had made for home the young ladies retraced their steps, and it was not until they had tramped back to the farm again that they overtook them, mounting again bareback they made back over the same ground to pick" up the saddles. Since this episode the ladies have made doubly sure of their mounts. Following the roads downwards they arrived at Carterton on Tuesday. On Wednesday the ponies were grazed at Featherston by the kindness of a local resident, until such time as the travellers return from the Empire city, and from a visit to Nelson where they have gone for the hop picking season. Speaking of their experiences they say that the holiday is a novel one to them, and they are enjoying every moment of it. They are revelling in the ride, and camping out, and will have a lot to say about New Zealand when they get back to Yorkshire. Both are loud in their praise of the kindness they are receiving everywhere from the people of New Zealand.