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Rachel Smalley: You can't put a price on keeping a small community connected and thriving

Author
Rachel Smalley,
Publish Date
Tue, 25 Oct 2016, 7:06AM
Rachel and Chugga
Rachel and Chugga

Rachel Smalley: You can't put a price on keeping a small community connected and thriving

Author
Rachel Smalley,
Publish Date
Tue, 25 Oct 2016, 7:06AM

I’m walking a little gingerly today. I spent part of Labour weekend on a horse... A horse called ‘Chugga’.

My niece goes to a small school in a remote valley in the King Country. The school has a roll of 14 children, and for the last 15 years they’ve been organising a Labour weekend horse trek to raise money for the school bus.

The parents take it in turns to drive the bus but the treks helps to pay for the fuel that keeps it on the road.

And I mentioned last week that my brother had sorted me a horse. I asked him to get me something with a bit of a breeding, a bit of thoroughbred in it, perhaps.

And he got me Chugga. He said she hadn't been ridden for a couple of years. Well, it worked out she hadn't been ridden for six years.

Anyway, Chugga the wonder horse was brilliant. She was bred by Maori up on the east coast, and they used her for hunting apparently. They'd tie a pig or a deer on her back, give her a whack on the backside and she'd find her way home. So my brother said worst case scenario, if things didn't go to plan, I should sit like a dead animal on her back, give her a whack on the backside, and she'd get me home.

On that first day we rode about 20 kilometres up hills, across ridge lines, through bogs. You name it. Hence why I'm still walking a little gingerly.

I think there were close to 90 people on the ride and they'd come from near and far. The trek's been going on for about 15 years, now. Initially the government wouldn't fund a bus, so that's why the community got together and came up with the idea of a trek. But now the bus is provided, but the community has to pay for the petrol.

You can see why the trek has become so popular. It's beautiful country. Rough, and rugged, a mixture of native bush and farmland....And you cross-cross your way across a few of the contributory rivers that feed into the Whanganui.

So the whole valley comes together for the weekend. Some of the farmers are on horseback to, guiding the trek. And then the rest are marshalls, making sure people don't end up lost or down a galley. They gave me some great advice along the way: "Just keep your arse in the saddle Rachel and you won't fall off." Top advice for anyone riding a horse, I think.

And then there was the man riding an appaloosa who asked me what I did for a job and I told him I was a journalist.

And he said: "I can't stand you buggers."

So that was a bit awkward.

And then he pulled out a hip flask of port and said I'd better have a slug of it. So we sat on our horses drinking sweet port and talking about what buggers the media were. It was brilliant.

As well as riding on the trek, we had to feed about 100 people. So on the first day we stopped at my brother's woolshed for lunch and the community put on a good home-made spread. Sammies, a few savouries, and some brilliant home-baking. Peanut brownies, lemon slice, tan square. It's been quite a while since I've had a good home-made tan square. I might have to dust off the old Edmonds cook-book this summer, I think. And we washed it all down with instant coffee or builders' tea.

The trekkers slept in their horse-floats and we'd put on dinner at the local hall. Sometimes it was a barbie. Sometimes glazed ham and vege. And a few drinks and a few tall stories about the day as well. Who'd fallen off. Who'd almost fallen off. Whose horse was at risk of becoming dog-tucker if it didn't lift its game.

And then as everyone packed up yesterday and the last of the horse floats left the valley, the community had raised a few thousand dollars. The school bus will survive another year. And in time, I hope, I'll be walking normally again.

But I'm richer for the experience, for sure. It was rural New Zealand at it's best. Yes, it keeps the school bus on the road, but it also keeps a small community connected and thriving. And in a world where many of us now don't really even know our neighbours, I'm not sure that's something you can put a price on.

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