Thread: Motu River Hunting

The Matawai pub could tell a few stories if the walls could talk.

In the 1960's while on animal surveys with F&RES two of us got caught out i the head of the Opato in a fierceome storm. We headed downstream all day to the Waioweka gorge bridge. My mate thumbed a lift to the Matawai pub to borrow a landrover from another crew due out. I stayed under the bridge with my blue heeler Kim. She was as cold and wet as me. I threw a stick for half an hour to try to keep us warm but eventually we both ran out of steam and I knew I had to get somewhere warm. I emptied my pack a put the dog inside and then my sleeping bag on top and buckeld it up. I left her under the bridge and thumbed a lift in truck to Matawai. The truckie said I passed out within a few seconds of getting aboard. The other crew were at the bar and said my mate had gone in the landrover to get me. When he could'nt locate me he looked in my pack for any note. He found Kim and just in time too as he reckoned she was nearly gone.
Lucky that time.