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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 8, No. 9. July 11, 1945
[Introduction]
Many people were startled last week by reports in the daily papers of the explosive eruption of Mt. Ruapehu which caused injuries to two well-known VUC trampers, Robin Oliver and Jim Witten-Hannah. It is unfortunate that these reports were rather misleading, as they caused a good deal of alarm to many friends of the injured men and made their conduct seem extremely irresponsible. While not condoning the action of these two men in exposing search parties to dangerous conditions and in causing them a great deal of inconvenience, we feel that it is unfair to condemn them as foolhardy adventurers.
A party of ten trampers, all part-timers whose degree courses are far enough advanced to make it unnecessary for them to devote study week to the purpose for which it was provided, planned to take advantage of the good snow conditions on Ruapehu after the recent snowfalls by spending some time ski-ing near the Blyth Hut, nine miles from Ohakune.
On arriving at this Outpost of Empire they learnt that the mountain had been sending out occasional rumbles and a large cloud of steam for the past week but there was no reason to suspect any violent activity. All the party arrived at the BIyth hut at various times on Saturday, June 30; two of them who had set out immediately after the train had deposited them at Ohakune at 3 a.m. put on a Babes in the Wood set, sleeping out on the track near the 4-mile peg, whether because of fatigue or subterranean rumblings we are not quite sure.