Going bush
At the age of 9, Jim Rollerson went to dog trials in the Papakura area near where he lived. "It was boring so a mate and I climbed a hill and started pushing pungas over in the bush. A short time later we heard a tinkling noise. Charley Kimberly, the local cop arrived, shaking handcuffs and inviting us to put them on! We got told we were frightening the sheep and the dogs with the racket the pungas were making, crashing down. We preferred to be escorted back to our fathers on the promise of good behaviour."
Once shot at, twice shy
Paul Wickham of Glen Eden writes: "In the early 1960s in Ohakune, my friend introduced me to how to fire .22 cartridges, liberated from his dad's shed, by inserting them into a convenient hole in concrete fence posts, and firing them by using an air rifle pressed against their base. We also placed a line of the .22 shells on the railway line, and shot at their bases. One fired, the bullet striking the hard bark of a nearby pine tree, and ricochetting to whiz between our heads. We looked at each other, then gathered up the remaining shells, as well as a few .303 bullets we had already liberated, and were going to try next, and returned them back to the shed."
