This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Friday night-saw us off in the van with Kev . Thoapgon at the wheel .and nine ‘others crammed into various postures in the room left after the packs had been thrown in. With Mangaweka behind us and.some expert navigating by Kev through the hinterland we ended up at a farm gate with an. ominous 'no entry‘ sign. Any fears were dispelled .in. the morning when we found we were in the right place. After passing through a number of gates we ended up at’ the forestry H.Q. and headed off up the ridge toward the tops. Glorious weather so we opted for that route rather than the shadow of the Kawhatau River. A good grunt up the ridge until we cleared the bush line on to - the tops where there were magnificent views across to Ruapehu and Egmont. —
t
Evidence of. wildlite - . -parapliantas ‘and deer on the: way “up. ‘Lunch was scoffed, then on across the tussock to ' the ‘turnoff’ to Hikurangi Hut (now named McKinnon and “taken over by the Deerstalkers Association). : Three. keener: types opted to clamber up to Hikurangi while the others carried on at a more leisurely pace to the hut. The route up to the top was fraught with Spaniards (the botanical variety) and holes in the ground as a result of slumping: from‘slips. Erosion is very evident’ in the area with some. quite big slips. A very. comfortable night Spent in the hut with everybody! gs bellies full of Lasgne. An element of friction arose in,the party when. Annette showed her true colours by reserving partition of her chocolate frog to favoured males in the’ party, but she' il get her just deserts: The’ girls’ spent most of.the evening giggling over a: Mills: ‘and Boon book much: to the disgust of: cnee more: literary members of the group. I 3% Morning. dawned with the fine weather still with us. off after breakfast down a well defined track to the Kawhatau River where we set off for a damp tramp back to our starting point. The river was low and the ‘travel relatively easy but it could be interesting in high water because of the number of gorges and some steep drops. Nevertheless there was a good shingly bed ‘and no slime on the rocks. : Back to the. cage where we had started off over the river, “up the bank, lots drawn for the front positions in the van, and driven back to Wellington “by our trusty _ chauffeur, Kev. An excellent trip through a part of : the country not frequently visited by the club Poe} certainly worth visiting again, ,
“sy _ a = Participants were: Kev Thompson (leader), Stuart Lusky, Kathy Carty, Clive Hellyar, Pam and Rob Whitla, Annette Johnson, Des and Christine Dawe, and Jenny Dixon. Note: As Annette is at present at Anakiwa she cannot reply in person to the libellous comments made about the distribution of her favours so the task has been Gelegated to me (Alison Miller). She told me she gave the frog to the first person who esked for it directly instead of merely hinting while inwardly drooling, The author will please note this would have been him if he wasn't so shy and retiring, :