Tararua Tramper's Guide Classic Routes

"Our cooking utensils consisted of two billy cans and a frying pan. Our baking was done on the ground, a hollow was made and over it a scrub fire was kindled, the ashes raked back, the dough was then placed in it and covered over with the hot ashes to bake - the result called damper was not very sightly, but it passed for good bread when there was nothing better. A baking of damper would sometimes last three weeks, so that in such a case, one's digestion was not impaired by eating newly baked bread."

[This reminds me, Merv, of the tale from Hector's trip up the Matukituki, where they had prepared sun-dried jerky from sheep they had driven many miles, then killed and smoked. "And it was remarkable how little of it sufficed to satisfy a man!"]