In place of a postponed guest speaker, South Wairarapa Rebus Club used the big TV screen to show the documentary “Tararua S–K: 60 years in the making.”
In 1963, South Wairarapa Rebus Club member David Capper was one of the first pair of trampers to complete the 80km Tararua Traverse in less than 48 hours — a weekend tramp, Friday evening to Sunday evening.
The traverse is known in the tramping world as the S–K (Schormann—Kaitoke) Traverse. To avoid private property access difficulties, what used to be the “Schormann roadend” departure point has now been superseded and the traverse starts nearby from the end of Putara Road, west of Eketahuna. However, the trip retains its ‘S-K’ sobriquet.
The total of the changes in altitude on the traverse, the sum of all the ups and downs, is equivalent to two return trips from base camp to the summit of Mt Everest—not the easiest of weekend strolls! (The height difference, base camp to summit on Everest is 3,468 m.)
In succeeding years, it has become quite competitive, particularly since Sir Graeme Dingle’s supported 18-hour traverse in 1965!
Recently, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of David Capper’s first 48-hour traverse achievement.
Andy Carruthers from Wellington made the 27-minute documentary, which won the prestigious Best Human Interest Film award at the 2024 Toronto Documentary Feature & Short Film Festival. Since August it has been showing on Air New Zealand’s inflight entertainment. Now over 90 years old, David was a star interviewee in the film, along with 78-year-old Sir Graeme Dingle and others. At our September meeting, in his member’s address, David had talked about his experience both of “doing it in 48 hours, first” and of his unexpected red-carpet treatment at the premiere showing.
In her member’s address before the movie, David’s wife Hilary, introduced us to Malawi where, in 1977, she and David had spent two weeks with their two children, aged 5 and 9, visiting a nephew.
They had taken a year off to travel overseas and Malawi was fitted in after time in Greece and before the next family visit, in Nepal’s Sherpa country. At the time, Malawi’s first president, Dr Banda, with a Presbyterian and Methodist church background and medical degrees from US and Scotland, seemed to have ensured that the Christian influence was strong in Malawi. Thus, the Capper’s first impressions of the Malawian people were of a Church-going, well-disciplined and orderly race. It was only some years later that they became aware of the true brutality of Banda’s rule.
Our Guest Speaker on 22 November is Mike Butterick MP, postponed from the October meeting.
(South Wairarapa Rebus Club: https://southwairaraparebus.com meets in the South Wairarapa Working Men’s Club at 9:45 a.m. on the fourth Friday of each month. Anyone in the retired age group who may be interested in SW Rebus Club is welcome to come along to a meeting as a visitor. Please introduce yourself at the door from West Street carpark or contact John Reeve 021 560 461).
