This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Friday night, amidst protests, the troops plodded up to Mountain House,” Didn't even get our boot laces mu@dy going over Pig Flat - many thanks to the Forest Service for their walkway over the boggy patch. The moon and stars were lovely, and we had the hut to ourselves. Not even the rats showed up. Saturday morning I nobly got up at 6.00am (or soon after) to put ona brew for the troops, and it was drizziing outside. By the time we got to Powell it was very windy, very misty and very cold, so we crawled into our pits until lunchtime, to see what the weather would do. It cleared so off we went, beautiful views, lots of stops to just sit in the sun. Michael raced off to Angle Knob, and spotted the fit trip camped on South King, then we raced © school boys down to Jumbo for the last bunks. Seven South Wairarapa members were eating baked beans etc., and looked upset at the smell of our steak, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. Barbara took pity on them since she had too much steak anyway, and I gave them a taste of guavas. Easter eggs all round then bed time. Sunday morning dawned fine, but incredibly windy. 10.15am we followed Michael down 'Raingauge Spur' (?). No maps or compasses were consulted initially, therefore it was a 34 hr. trip to Mid Atiwhakatu Hut (% to 2). Ten minutes for lunch then off again. Michael, Barbara and John took off down the river, and got out just before 4pm. Neil was very sunburnt and Katie had sore ankles, so we followed the track, and eventually got out, very red-faced at 10 mins to 5pm. On the whole, an enjoyable weekend. On the trip: Annette Johnson {scribe), Barbara Johnsen, Michael Wood, Katy Armington, Neil Sanson, John Speak.