Windy Tops

Tag: article

  • Re-living The Sutch Search (Part 1 of 3)

    This post is followed by part 2 and part 3.

    “There are so many possibilities in regard to the whereabouts of the missing party that anything in the nature of “combing the country” is out of the question. The most that can be done is to investigate a few of the probable directions they may have taken.”

    —The Evening Post, 26th April 1933.

    After the recent post regarding the search for Esmond Kime, I’ve decided that the New Zealand National Library’s Papers Past service is a treasure trove of interesting history.

    Another historic event that I’ve been keen to discover more about is what’s come to be known as The Sutch Search, which occurred in the Tararuas during the latter part of April in 1933. I’m posting this in three parts over a few days (see also part 2 and part 3), because there are so many newspaper articles that it’s a lot to take in. Part one covers the search effort, part two covers the return of the party, and part three covers the media storm and arguments that followed about responsibilities of those in the wilderness.

    I’m unsure why it’s popularly called The Sutch Search. Bill Sutch was only one of four missing people and he wasn’t considered to be leading the trip. It may be because he became high profile decades later in 1974 when he was accused, unsuccessfully and with no presented evidence, of trying to pass secrets to the Soviet Union. A more complete biography of Dr Sutch, although one which doesn’t even mention his influence in tramping, can be found here. Forty years prior to 1974, Bill Sutch was a young tramper exploring the mostly-unexplored Tararua Range. When he and three other people went missing, they became the subject of one of the most significant land search and rescue operations in New Zealand’s history.

    From Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 95, 24 April 1933, Page 5:
    A VIEW OF THE TARARUAS

    G. L. Adkin Photo.
    LOST IN THE TARARUAS.—Looking across the Tararua Range, the area in which four trampers, including a lady, are reported to be lost. The photograph shows the Mitre-Holdsworth ridge of the Tararua Range, looking NNW from Mount Holdsworth. Arete Peak (4935ft) and Mount Dundas (4944 ft) are seen in the extreme distance, with The Mitre (5154 ft) on the right and Mount McGregor (5080 ft) and Angle Knob on left.

    On Saturday 15th April 1933, four young trampers—Mr Eric Hill, Miss Morva Williams, Mr Bert O’Keefe and Dr. Bill Sutch—left Te Matawai Hut near Levin, and set out to follow a route to Mountain House, below Mt. Holdsworth. At a time when the northern Tararuas were only beginning to be explored, this route had been completed several times in summer, often in a single day. They wanted to see if it would be possible in winter.

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  • In Search of Esmond J. Kime

    Here’s a slice of history:

    From Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 137, 13 June 1922, Page 8:
    MISSING TRAMPERS

    Two Wellington youths, who set out to cross the Tararuas last Thursday morning, have not since been heard of, and their long absence has aroused anxiety for their safety. They are Mr. Allan Bollons, son of Captain Bollons, of Wellington, and Mr. E. J. Kime, of Rongotea, and both are employees of the Post and Telegraph Department. They expected reaching Otaki on Saturday night or Sunday morning, but in view of the amount of snow on the ranges, it is considered that they may have taken shelter in the Mt. Alpha hut, and remained there.

    Mr Vosseler, the chief guide of the Tararua Tramping Club, has organised two search parties to go over the range from each side, and the parties left the city this morning.

    The year of 1922 was probably a turning point for how the Tararua Range was seen and treated by people in outdoor recreation circles. At a time when best practices for visiting the back-country were in a comparative infancy, two serious accidents, first in January and then in June, were a catalyst for improving tracks and the building of a new hut on the Tararuas’ Southern Crossing route.

    1425662741_39bea50ee8_m-6583631
    Kime Hut as it currently stands. The current
    hut is the first replacement on the current site,
    having been built during the 1970s.
    [Update 12-Dec-2013: Kime Hut has been replaced
    again, so is now in its third incarnation.]

    Tellings of both accidents are given through Chris MacLean’s history of the Tararuas titled Tararua: the story of a mountain range, to which I often refer on this blog because I think it’s such a great book. It was only when searching for more information after a query that I noticed the National Library has very recently added another 30 years of issues of The Evening Post to its public online and searchable archive called Papers Past. This makes it easier to view another perspective through the Evening Post as things unfolded. It also reveals additional information that isn’t widely circulated, especially around Alan Bollons’ side of the story as was related through interviews in the Evening Post, which I wasn’t very aware of until now.

    Below, I’ve reproduced a batch of newspaper articles about the search for Esmond Kime as it occurred, and some of the consequences that eventually led to the improvements of tracks and hut facilities along the Tararua Southern Crossing route. Thanks to the National Library for resourcing the Papers Past service and making this possible, and thanks to Ms Hamilton nee Bollons for starting the discussion that led to me coming across this. I’ve found reading the whole lot really fascinating.
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  • The Hut Fallacy

    1426537098_47ac3b8445-5531718
    A clouded in Kime Hut on the exposed tops of the Southern Crossing, Tararua Range.

    fallacy [fal-uh-see]. 1. a deceptive, misleading, or false notion, belief, etc.: That the world is flat was at one time a popular fallacy.. 2. a misleading or unsound argument. 3. deceptive, misleading, or false nature; erroneousness. 4. Logic. any of various types of erroneous reasoning that render arguments logically unsound.

    The Hut Fallacy. 1. a deceptive, misleading, or false notion or belief prevalent in New Zealand outdoor circles that the objective of reaching back-country huts can reliably replace additional measures of safety. 2. a presumption that plans work, judgement is always perfect and/or that accidents only happen to other people.

    I hope nobody minds me defining this term, at the very least for my own purposes. Despite this kind of thing happening often, I don’t know of a quick and easy term to describe it. I think The Hut Fallacy is something that pops up often in New Zealand’s back-country.
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