Boots 'N' All: Continuing Tales in the Nz Back Country

By Tony Walsh

From the valleys of Te Urewera to the hinterlands of the South Island, and across to the red, dusty lands of Australia, these stories weave through a landscape of adventure and amusement, populated by larger-than-life characters. These were men and women who lived whole-heartedly their back-country existence and were ready to jump into life at any moment, boots and all.
Within the chapters of this book from the hilarious Im Shot to the poignant Epitaph to a Friend a tale unfolds; a record of one mans hunting adventures and encounters with some real but unusual people in the remoter parts of New Zealand.
Boots n All is a compelling read that continues in the footsteps of the popular first book by author Tony Walsh, The Black Singlet Brigade.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris NZ
• Release date: Jun 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493191901

Tony Walsh

Author Tony Walsh was born in Preston, England, and moved to New Zealand with his family at the age of 13 in 1952. As a young man teaching in country schools around New Zealand he developed a great love for the bush, for hunting and fishing, and for the curious characters that fill the isolated corners of this country with adventure. Now retired with his loving wife at Waimana, near the beautiful Urewera ranges, he spends his days fishing, entertaining the grandchildren, reminiscing, and writing.

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Boots ’n’ All

Continuing Tales in the NZ Back Country

Tony Walsh

Copyright © 2014 by Tony Walsh.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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CONTENTS

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FOREWORD

1 ROAD TO THE RAINBOW

2 A HUNTER WOULD A WOOING GO

3 ROAD CLOSED

4 BIVOUAC

5 THE LONER

6 FOREST FORTRESS

7 MAN OF WAR—MAN OF PEACE

8 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

9 WAIOTAHI VALLEY

10 I’M SHOT

11 THE PURIRI POST

12 FOILED

14 SHORT STRIDES

15 EPITAPH TO A FRIEND

16 PORK ON THE PLATE

17 BUSH TUCKER

18 EASY ONES

19 ON THE ROAD

20 ADORABLE

21 HERE AND THERE

22 GOT YOUR GOAT

23 PIONEERING

24 SHEARING AT PAKIHI

25 THE WHEEL TURNS

DEDICATION

To my wife—Noreen.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deep appreciation to my daughter Kathleen for the many hours of hard work and patience she has put in to prepare this manuscript for publication. I would also like to thank my daughter Joanne for her assistance with the final proof reading. Without their help and encouragement I would never have made it.

FOREWORD

Some people would look at me in surprise if I said Tony, my husband, was a shy, gentle, and vulnerable person. He conceals these traits behind his other attributes of courage, strength and social confidence. They are not a mask he wears to conceal his real self, but are a real part of him too.

They are part of the young man who first ventured into the bush with Ned and Tom in the stories in The Black Singlet Brigade and they are part of the author today who presents this, his new book, Boots ’n All.

Only a truly courageous man will step out to face intruders set upon physically harming him. Only a strong person will bear the adversities of life without complaint, and stand up to protect others who are weaker and victimised, like his little brother at school and his daughter on the bus. It is not weakness but strength to give away each daughter to another man in marriage with tears in your eyes and the only plea that they will make them happy. To observe him with children is to see the gentleness and love in him.

He has a strong sense of duty and great integrity. Sometimes these can get in the way of his other responsibilities or can drive him to almost breaking point trying to fulfil unreasonable work demands. He has great perseverance which persists to the point of stubbornness. Trying to persuade him to do something he does not want to do only sets up resistance. Leave him to work it through and he will make it or have good reason not to.

It is the work of a lifetime to know this man fully but is something you never achieve or grow bored with for he is ever growing, ever learning. He is the man I love, warts and all—Boots ’n All—but above all the man I respect and am glad to have as my friend.

Noreen Walsh, the author’s wife.

1

ROAD TO THE RAINBOW

1960

The twin rivers leave the wilderness of the Urewera to mingle their waters at the hamlet of Whakarae, the last remaining settlement in the Waimana valley on the way to Tauwharemanuka.

A narrow, winding, gravel road follows one of these, the Tauranga, across a shallow ford to enter the northern gateway to the National Park. As it begins a gentle climb it narrows even further to bypass the Horse Paddock and a set of cattle yards used by local Tuhoe in their informal grazing and farming of clearings alongside the upper river.

The road then continues its climb to a high bluff which provides the traveller with a glorious prospect of the entrenched river far below, sheltered by the dense overhanging bush. From the ford of the Onga Onga (tree nettle) an easy descent leads to Scotty’s clearing and an ancient high sided wooden bridge. This large tract of regressing grassland was once well fenced and is still grazed. Maori folk have planted fruit trees along the river fringes. Beneath a large fig tree stands a dilapidated whare. Nearby, a grapevine sprawls its untidy tentacles over the encroaching bush.

Directly across the Tauranga is a bracken-infested plateau that has been occupied since ancient times. A rusting shack’s remains can still be distinguished beside a gnarled, lichen infested apple tree which deer occasionally visit to savour the tempting fruit.

Plunging northwards below the high bluff, the river drops into a formidable rushing gorge, canyon-like in its depths and precipitous sides. Captain Gilbert Mair with a force of colonials and kupapa attempted the traverse of these waters in the 1860s in pursuit of the elusive Te Kooti but his soldiers were ambushed by the warrior leader Tamaikoha and his warriors. The European force was soundly defeated and fled.

The southward path now taken by the road parallels the river, below a canopy of native forestry, to emerge again on the river’s edge at the Urewera Stream. The stretch of water from there to Scotty’s is an angler’s paradise. It houses deep pools broken by bouldery riffles, the clear waters a natural habitat for wary rainbow and an odd brown trout.

Only a short distance to the south is Tunnel Creek, which is crossed by a wee open-sided wooden bridge. A six foot high tunnel was carved through the solid rock by the early road builders. Water still pours through it when the course under the bridge cannot cope with the flow.

Within a short distance and at the next bend of the road the traveller encounters a further clearing. Above the road stands a Forest Service Hut built to shelter the deer cullers they employ. Beside it is a rifle range which cullers use to sight in their rifles before heading off to their assigned blocks.

To the west and below the road is the Hay Paddock of gently rolling terraces. There is a lovely picnic area and swimming hole here and a likely spot to land a trout in the deep pool below the grey landslide.

The Tauranga enters the pools from another gorge of tightly enclosed foaming torrents. The road, of course, cannot follow the river and climbs somewhat, becoming even narrower and demanding care. On dark nights the eastern face is festooned with glow worms. In one spot a pinnacle of the bedrock protrudes sharply from the surface of the road, a booby trap for an unwary driver.

A beautiful grove of kahikatea stands on the banks of the Mill stream ford (the Ngutuoha). Where the creek debouches into the main river, an expanse of grazing country marks the southern extremity of the Boynton holding at Hopeone. Forest fringed, it makes a delightful picnic or camping spot.

The road continues from there to Hopeone proper. Bob Boynton farms a small herd on the acreage known to locals as The Ranch. His homestead dominates the clearing from a commanding terrace sited to the warmth of the sun. Beside the road bisecting the farmland stands a cowshed and its dairy. Often the cows free range the river bed on the fringes of the park. The lead cow wears a cowbell hanging from her neck, its tonk tonk making the cows easy to locate at milking time. Some of the more venturesome animals have a fence batten fastened securely in front of their shoulders to deter them from venturing far into the bush.

Another building at Hopeone houses the one stand woolshed, and adjacent to this are the sheep yards. There is a concrete plunge dip beside the river to take care of lice problems.

The traveller’s path accompanies the Tauranga beneath the forest canopy. At a high bend and screened from the road by a stand of kahikatea is the Eight Acre clearing. Well-fenced, it is an important grazing block and hay paddock.

From here the road makes a short, gentle descent to the Omutu stream. Above the road (and quite difficult to locate for the unknowing) is situated what once must have been a huge and formidable pa. Sited as it is, its northern flanks guarded by almost precipitous sides, it defended the Tuhoe hinterland from enemy entry.

The main river here forms an oxbow, with a series of three deep, dark green pools separated by short reaches trickling now over a shallow shingly bottom. Trout lie there to spawn undisturbed in the autumn.

The more gentle terrain from the Eight Acre to Tauwharemanuka allows the Tauranga to wend a more leisurely and meandering path, only interrupted by the entry of the unruly waters of a major tributary, the Otapakawa. The ford on the road at this point is often treacherous and can frequently become impassable.

Beyond this stream the road continues to extensive fields at Tauwharemanuka. In times past when milking a few cows and separating the cream made for a reasonable income this had been a tiny settlement. By the 1950s it