Old route to school retraced

Dozens of people hike up Rough Ridge, near Oturehua, to recreate the daily school commute of late...
Dozens of people hike up Rough Ridge, near Oturehua, to recreate the daily school commute of late 19th-century pupils. Photo by Jono Edwards.

Ida Valley locals have followed in their 19th-century ancestors' footsteps by walking the school route that they took.

On Saturday, 58 people walked 8km over Rough Ridge, near Oturehua, to an old school site near Wedderburn to which pupils would have commuted from 1886 to 1895.

The journey took about an hour and 45 minutes, after which walkers had a barbecue at the old site, which now consists of an old mud-brick house where a teacher used to live.

Walk organiser Trevor Beck, of Oturehua, said it was a way of showing locals what their ancestors went through.

"Sometimes they were walking in terrible conditions, and two times a day.''

The track had cairns along the way, placed in 1887 to guide the children in snow and fog.

The walkers ranged from 4 to 74 years of age and many of them had ancestors who went to the school.

"The young ones did a great job,'' Mr Beck said.

"We had a great response and it was a beautiful day.''

He had talked about the idea for a couple of years, he said.

"We needed to suss out the track first and once we'd done that, we put down pegs to mark it.''

He wanted to organise a similar excursion next year, he said.

"It all depends on the farmers who own the land. But this year a lot of them got involved.''

For the next walk, he wanted to find the route to the school from Idaburn, from where his father would have walked.

Judy Beck, who researched the history of the school, said she wanted as many children as possible to join in, to see how children lived back then.

"We got 18 to come along. I'm sure they have a new perspective.''

The school was opened in 1886.

It was originally called the White Sow Valley School, and it remained there until it was moved into the Wedderburn township in 1896.

The track went largely unused after 1895, when Oturehua received its own school.

jono.edwards@odt.co.nz

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