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Be pe WHO LIKES MONDAYS ANYWAY? I (Ruahines} ~ Dale Parsons 4 ag seeing a grown. woman Crys wt vatever we Finally relented > and let Barbara's trip join up with the chosen ones. This swelled the trip number to 12. Not such a cheerful bunch on Saturday. morning® though’ as the mist was pretty thick and the rain persistent. Evil thoughts filled the troops when it was realised there wasn't an under-agé drinker among us, but I was strong, "We hadn't come al] this way just to sit in a hut," I told them "we had to get-out there and battle : the ofenenieianere was convinced but they packed up any- ~~ way. We decided to give away the.tops travel and instead made good time up the Waipawa' river. (bar one of us who insisted on regurgitating her breakfast somewhere near the bottom), up‘and over the Waipawa’ Saddle surrounded in mist and drizzle. Waikamaka Hut was-reached for lunch, then the weather“took‘a definite tirn for deterioration, an obvious sign I thowght; so a pit“bash afternoon was ETT ooa/2
I D\, seine it was boredom of. was Alt ‘that we couldn't. ‘stand
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ate’ declared. No-one was too upset; in fact the sickly members of the party Pasay delighted. The afternoon was whiled away telling jokes and shaggy dog stories (prize to Barbara for the longest story and to Paul who had heard it twice before). Other highlights were the Aussie card-sharp's tricks (we all know who not to play poker with), and a positively rounded display by a budding young hypnotist, Things got desperate as the evening wore on, and..we ran out of lateral thinking problems; as a .last.resort we played a couple of hours of murder (no prize to Alan for not being able to ‘wink. ) Sunday. morning saw (you guessed it) torrential rain! A-bit of quick river crossing instruction soon had everyone linkéd up happily sloshing up the Waikamaka.. Over the saddle into the wind, and down the screey river. romped. 12 wet trampers all wearing big cheesey grins, the front runners. yahooing and the. tail enders singing: mnneny they. couldn't be enjoying themselves? A food stop. at. Waipawa hut Soak then back down to the river, but oh.no what: has’ happened to the water colour and what were all those rocks doing thundering Gown into the gorge. At this point the leader exerted a bit of authority and everyone headed back to the hut to wait. for the weather. Moral. was.,extremely high; the thought of missing work on Monday seemed to elate quite a few. We made 5 lots of emergency food sufficient for 12 andas. the, jokes ran out so did the rain. (but have. you heard the one about. the rarey bird?) By 8 o'clock the sky was clearing: though the river was. still high, it all looked good for: the morning. . An early start ‘on’ Monday and an hour later we were ati the- vans, a quick call at. ‘the. farm house, and the cS arrived home around 1 o'clock. re fy These. missing. work: Leader Dale. Parsons, 2nd in command Barbara sonneen with tLoopers: Stu Lusty,' Peter May, Nick Winter, Alan Cox, Sharon Fraser’, Michael Harmon, Robert Bruer, Jenny Marks, Merv Mitchell, Paul Bolger. A special thank you’ to Andrew Trembath and Barbara Thompson for all the trouble" our non-appearance eeu e them.