QUARTZ REEF LOCATED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1939, Page 17 (Supplement)

QUARTZ REEF LOCATED

After breakfast we started up the river, looking at rock and stones and washing sand. I was getting tired of the game. It was not in my line, but Jackie was persistent. He thought that we might fluke a find. We trudged on through gorges and over rough boulders. We could .not see very far ahead and kept wondering what the next corner would reveal. At last we were rewarded with a quartz reef. After examination we decided to camp there for the day. and get some off. Jackie got out his miner’s pick fixed the handle and got to work. After a while he got a chunk off; then out came his magnifying glass. He turned the piece over and over to examine it. He put it aside and tried in another place. As the billy was boiling we had dinner and our usual rest. Jackie warded to have a good try al the reef. As we were not lied to time we decided to put the afternoon in. so at it we went, and nothing could we find bid a quartz reef in the mountains and that we left behind. That evening we saw a couple of kakas flying high. The shortage of birds, made me think about our food supply. We trier? one of the Maori girl's scones for breakfast and found it quite good, and one scone made a good meal for three hungry men and it was lasting too. We travelled up the river a bit till we came to another branch. One went to the right, the other one, according to the compass was heading in the direction in which I wanted to travel, so we went that way. According to maps now. it was the Parks Stream that we went up. For a while the travelling was not too good, but (he valley .opened out. I got up a tree and saw a good bold mountain lo the south-west which 1 thought was Crawford. We kept on up this stream till evening. While we were having tea, we made up our minds to get on the main range at lhe low saddle near Puke IVlatawai. As usual, after a fair night’s sleep we