Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 4 (August 1, 1929)

John Rochfort's Swag

John Rochfort's Swag.

Another doughty explorer down the Buller seventy years ago was John Rochfort. In after years he made the pioneer surveys of the present Main Trunk railway route in the North Island. Rochfort, unlike the Mackays and his colleague, Charles Wilson Hursthouse, in the North, was not a big man physically. His feats of endurance and strength, however, were often the source of surprise to his fellow-bushmen. Mr. W. Aitchison, who was one of Rochfort's party on some of his exploring journeys, said of him that his ordinary swag was never less than 75lbs. weight. With this pikau up he had been known to tramp and climb six miles without a spell. A 50lbs. swag, he used to say, only served to “steady a man.”