This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
HEREPAI-ROARING STAG "LODGE" (Aug 17-19) _ ~'Mike Kennelly BLURRGHHH!!! ‘What was that Mickael? a The offendin ng pile was swept from the back of the van, “and everyone held their noses until we arrived at Featherston and washed the floor of the van down... We aban Nits at.Putara roagend without anymore ado, except for the sighting ef a searchlicht scenning the sky for a Russian (or perhaps Fijian?) invasion. We stumbled (largely the resuit of Murray's driving) _ (My driving is not that bad - Ed.) ovt of the van, made an extended fate ‘well to the Fit Trip, and cainped slightly up-river of the:swing bridge. A cold,: fine morning (what happened to the rain?) and we set off for the Roaring Stag turncff., The thought 6f mattresses and a 15 min. flat walk (according to the leader) saw us cpting for Herepai Hut instead of the Lodge. Thirty minutes later, and puffing after climbing a couple of hundred feet, we finally arzived at the Hut. Five cf us went for a walk ~up Herepai while the rest (two) stayed behind in the sun and chopped some firewood - one had strict orders not to touch the axe. ‘With everyone back at the Hut the cards were put on the table to play a game ‘of Julian‘s’*, Irene wanted to play ‘strip-jack naked', but everyone except Phil iaicees it was too cold. After Harry, who incidentally suggested the game, won both hands we switched to ‘black bitch'. Harry seemed to be quite gocd at this game too (must have been because every- ‘one else was too busv sears alas Eee fire), se we dropped the cards and started dinner. Two hours later and the carrots and spuds had just begun. to boil - I think we. should have boiled the water first! We were ' €inally served up -with a xunny conconction and a cheesecake to follow. Sunday morning saw Darryi trying to unload same extra food that his mother had stuffed in his pack - even Harry refused the tin of baked beans. ; eae Tt was still fine aS we made our wav’ owt to Roaring Stag. A rather short lunch was 4ad inside the hut (it had started to rain) and we headed back to the roadend. : ; 7 Round to the Mt Bruce roadend to meet the Fit Trip just as they arrived. (Brilliant timing on our paxt -- Ed). aee/f3
On the trip were: Marry! Cooper, Phil Ravlis‘ts, Irene Jones, Mike Kennelly, Jane Offord, Harry smith, Michael Wakelin.