In our third year training in 1964 when we were based at the Forestry Training Centre in Rotorua, we got involved in some serious bushwacking in the native bush, known as Ecological Survey or just Eco.
It was early spring in 1964, and the weather was wet most of the time. During that time we did two Eco Survey trips, each of two weeks’ duration. We were split up into small groups and sent out to different blocks of native forest around the central North Island. The first one that my group did was up in the Raukumara Ranges off the Waioeka Gorge between Whakatane and Wairoa, and the second was up the Motu River on the south-western side of the Raukumara Range.
The Eco team leader for the first Raukumara trip was John Beardsley. He did a good job of teaching us the basics and providing an introduction to Eco Survey. The rest of that crew were Woodsman Derek (Razor) Gosling, and Ranger Trainees Dave Cameron, Barry McLaughlin and me.
Eco Survey was a project designed at that time to survey all of New Zealand’s native forests using a system of sample plots selected randomly from aerial photographs and then located physically on the ground by the Eco Surveyors. We first collected our aerial photographs, which had been scanned and marked so that the sample plots that we were to survey and sample represented a good example of each separate forest type. Our packs were heavy, as we had to carry tent flys, food for three weeks, all of our surveying gear, sleeping bags, a change of clothes, rifles, slashers, billies and cooking utensils.
Not in the plan
On the Raukumara trip, we were dropped off up in the middle of the Waioeka Gorge where a large side stream ran into the Waioeka River. Razor had brought a dog with him, which was not in the plan. At the last minute, a mate of his had left him his dog to look after for a month while he was away working in a bush block where they didn’t allow dogs. It appeared to be mostly Labrador with a bit of huntaway thrown in. Whatever mix of breeds it was, the dog was a bit smelly and fairly large.
All was fine until we came to the first river crossing, and that was when we discovered that we had inherited a problem: the bloody dog wouldn’t swim across rivers! The stream that we were following into the Raukumara Ranges was running moderately high, although not in full flood. It was about 50 metres wide where we started, although it became narrower as we travelled further upstream. The track that we were following, however, stuck to the river for a long way, and on the first day we must have crossed that river and side creeks about 30 times. The dog had to be carried across every time. The water was often up to waist-level, making it difficult to retain our...
