This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
iL.tvw- LOAENE - WALLS (“HE February if - 21 We slogged up to Powell on Friday - night “to. get. a 2 good start; By” 8 next morning we were away. Below Mid-Waiochine Hut we sat down to an-early lunch, hoping: the river would.go down. . Well, , by. 12.30 it looked OK so-we:blew.up the tubes and were ‘off. The” river was much higher than: we thought.. _ 7: Brian aot a fright as "he was. . swept off his tube and over a. rapid. We had trouble crossing the river, even with tubés, The “problem was that the current was. too strong .- we were going dGown-stream rather than across. This was all..going on before we got to Isabel Creek, Nine of us had had enough by the time we reached: the creek. Five decided to brave the main gorge,. but Dave and Bruce couldn't gét across the first crossing so they piked ‘too. So only three, Ian, Chris and Martin made it down the gorge. It took us a long time to get up High Ridge and we got to Totara Flats about 8.30pm. By the Sunday, - the river was much lower. Some took the river, some the track. The gorge below Walls was a delight ’- it is” ~ almost possible to float all the wee Wet suits were the order of the weekend. I found mine, ‘a yachting suit with short pela, long arms and a zip down the front good value. = ye , : On the trip: Ian Hadfield, Mike Hollis, Ian and Karen Bunckenburg, Brian, Martin Green, Chris Brown, Dave Chandler, Hamish Kebbel, Greg Ord and Wayne Reid. --