This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Further west in NW Nelson, Tony Gazley, Trevor Bissel ané myself copped the lot during a fevr dsy tric in and around the Anatoki Valley. It was fine but windy on Saturday as we traversed the Haupiri Range from Handcock Creek to Dcuider Luke, but it was already snowing when we left Boulder Lake next morning. And talk about windy! The ridge from Green Saddle to Needles Eye was exposed to the full blast of the S to SW winds although we hac a bit of protection further along where the route si.dkes impressive slabs anc pinnacles before the Needle, There isn't much worse than wet snow on slabs and snowgrass SO progress was slow to Adelaide Tarn. The view from Needles Eye was. a true winter scene and it:finally became obvious that the next bit from Adelaide Tarn arouné the Dragons Teeth ane up the Anatoki Peak bluff wasn't on in such conditions, We stayed the nicht at a cosy’ little hut by the tarn. Next day with the weather worse than ever, we were swept through the Needies Eye, then sidled onto the spur dropping to the top fork in the left BaaneH Anatoki River, A two hour bash brought us to Anatoki Forks and the posh hut here = but Somewhat later however, you see the river was rather full. Another Cay was taken in getting back to cur vehicle along the pack track, We were all tremendously impressed with this area an@ are determined to return and finish what we failed to do. ‘A traverse of the Douglas Range is rarely done and what we saw of it froma Cistance looked very challenging. Not shown on the map is a hut at Lonely Lake GR 972660: and one at the SW corner of Lake Stanley called Smokey Drip. There’is a new track around Lake Stanley Gown to the old hut at Waingaro junction, The riége between Drunken Szilors anc Kakapo Peak shown as scrub on the map is said to be tussock and rocky siéles with bush in the sacele. before Lonely Lake, There is a cunt track from Han@cock Creek up to 4135' through Devils Dip Saddle and: up onto the Haupiri Range but it’s a 5000' climb roughiy ~ the route we used, The best access to the Anatoki packtrack is from the McCallums Roadend flat.
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There is a rough track through gorse and bracken which starts at GR 131762 _up to the packtrack which saves you a long climb from Kotinga Road, It's raally good country in there ~ why not try it sometime?