France is on the other side of the world from New Zealand. Tunnellers embarked on a journey that would take them half way around the world, prior to arriving at the hell that was the Western Front.
On the morning of 18th December 1915 the men packed their kit-bags and gathered in ranks on Avondale racecourse. Their training was now finished. The men had become soldiers. The New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company marched through Auckland on embarkation day. The crowd of onlookers cheered them along. The Tunnellers deposited their kit-bags on board their troopship and sat down to eat. The voyage and their first meal on board started badly. It was discovered the cooks were striking due to their ever increasing working hours.
The tunnellers ate their breakfast very early the only useful meal being old ration of biscuits and cheese. It was a famished company which went down on the quay to parade through the city until the Sir George Grey's statue between cross of Queen Street and Grey's Avenue. James Allen, Defence Minister, and Christopher Parr, Auckland Mayor, make a speech in front of the company and people gathered in the streets. The Tunnellers returned to the harbour and embarked on their ship, The Ruapehu. By the time they returned to the ship the Cooks strike was over and travel to Europe began.
The Ruapehu had been built in 1901 but was a very comfortable ship. The troopship went around Cap Horn and made its first stop at Montevideo Harbour in Uruguay on 8th January 1916. The men were not authorized to leave the boat because it was in neutral territory. The coal bunkers were filled. Some activities were taken up on board the troopship and a very full program of work was written up: mental and physical exercices to keep up the standard of fitness achieved in Avondale.
During the journey to Dakar, life on board included some recreational time for the men. They washed their clothes and also themselves in large soapy pools on board. They played many improvised games: boxing matches, card games and kept up their physical fitness. In the evening, a few Tunnellers played music, improvised concerts, and the abudance of talent was a great source of entertainment. Even a poet rose among them, whose topical ballads never failed to win roars of applause.
The NZ Tunnellers disembarked in Dakar for a march through the city. Men walked through Dakar and sung the Marseillaise, the French National anthem. Before they embarked again, Tunnellers performed the haka in front of people gathered on the harbour. From Dakar to Plymouth was the most dangerous part of the voyage. A warship now escorted the Ruapehu. German Warships and U-boats were an ever present threat. Finally on 3rd February 1916, the Ruapehu arrived in Plymouth Harbour.
The Company disembarked immediately and transfered to Falmouth. The men took a train full of young ladies, which did not displease them. Upon arrival in Falmouth a great dinner was organized with all the female youth and beauty of the town. More physical training took place in Hornwork camp although the training lacked in the mining tasks that would be set upon them on arrival at the front. They had no idea what was waiting them at the front line and were dependent on their own ressources.
At midnight on 7th March 1916, the Tunnelling Company entrained at Falmouth for Southampton. A body of men consisting of one officer and 69 men was transfered to the NZ Command Depot at Hornchurch. The Company spent the night on board between England and France. They arrived in Le Havre on 10th March and took a train for Tincques, a small town in Northern France about 30 kilometers West of Arras. Another draft of one officer and 25 men were left at the Royal Engineers Base Camp at Rouen.
Men moved to Chelers, five kilometers from Tincques and were billeted for the night. The front line was not far from the Company. The Tunnellers were the first New Zealanders on the Western Front in March, 1916. The Tunnellers arrived at the Arras front line without being part of a larger formation. Enlisted just for their aptitude for digging and their knowledge of working underground, the men of the NZ Tunnelling Company relied on their own ressources and capabilities.