OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 370, 26 July 1946, Page 23

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY

TARARUA STORY. Edited by B. D. A. Greig. @ Tararua Tramping Club (Inc.), Wellington. ‘THIS slightly belated Silver Jubilee publication of the major Wellington tramping club is an ambitious production, embellished by superb mountain photographs, well printed, and competently written too, from the poem by Paula Hanger (my pick from the verses included) to the sober, matter-of-fact accounts of the Club’s historians. The peculiar idioms of the mountaineer have their place in this narrative of manysided achievement, but they do not dwindle into a jargon. It is primarily a record of good fellowship, in the hills and out of them. Founded by sensible men, the Club has been lucky in attracting a succession of men and women capable of carrying on its well-balanced, friendly tradition, always alert to break new ground but never deserting the old. The Club’s activities include bush travel, alpine climbing, ski-ing, and simple rambling, a school of friendship of — The -- bivouc and the’ bathing beach; Where incidents draw every day from each Memorable gesture and witty speech. Safe and efficient travellers in their own bush country (just as difficult to navigate and live in as more glamorous regions further afield), the Tararuas’ ambitions were never bounded by their title, and the reader is amazed at the width of experience of places and peaks they have built up over the years. The Club has nursed the first steps of many fine mountaineers, and this volume is a graceful reminder of how much a strong club can do to encourage respect and love for the hills and a deeper understanding of nature and human nature.

D.O.W.

H.