This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
ov I The doubters said we would lose ourselves ‘somewhere between High Ridge and Totara Flits And on Friday night, a clear, still summer ' evening, we lost our first! ‘Poor Raymond's _ knee gave out on him again, on the way to -Mountain House. He returned to sta e Lodge. “a The: real. tr ampers on ‘this meta ripe pitched flys in the clearing past Mountain House. The less hardy. braved the hut rats. - Susan was’ the I only victim, and the hole chewed in her pack ~~ _must have thrown her into a state of: disequilibriun, _ ... because next morning she insisted that we should. ..c& I walk down the track to Powell Hut, not up. .. . . Despite some rather minor bush bashing, i the heat, High Ridge was a breeze. But all along ». there was talk of school parties ending up in = © Waiohine Gorge: did the troops have such little faith in their trip leader, and Anne, his trusty assistant? Anne and I, in fact looked forward to _ the .challenge with confidence and’ good. cheer. But all this was overtaken by surprise, dis~ appointment and disbelief! Forest Service had . recently been before us with oodles and oodles of orange paint. - About 15-20 minutes before Flax Knob, the bright new orange discs hit us, leading us on and down to Totara Flats. A wooden sign marked "Totara Flats" pointed the way off Flaxy Knob, a knob without flax. It was really unnecessary. At. times the discs were on every tree along the . ridge track, and at no time could you see less than.3 discs in fromt of you. Often there were four :or five. But still after remarking that there would be no prizes for staying on the track, Rob strayed off! And Marie and Alan, thinking the discs had ended, preferred an unmarked ‘track instead, . yh The reasor for these strayings, and the often erratic, meandering orange pathways, was revealed. Jater that evening when one of the culprits _visited our fire. Concerned about the number of ‘people _supposedly lost in that vicinity, NoOZ. : Forest. Service had sent him and his mate “to mark . » @ track..: This was done the previous Thursday:.. ~neither of them had been on that ridge before!
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The traditional campfire at the campsite on Totara Flats was followed bry rain, and more and a wet but success-— ful conclusion to the’ ip. Fowever, this party was not amused at having to wait Zz hcurs for several members of the fit trip. Those participating were: Anne Greenwood, Rob Fox, Alan Mountford,. Marie Nickel, Alison Wainscott, Honora Renwick, Susan Fry, Sam Rachael, Michael Foote, Murray Hughes, Nicholas Bishop, Stephen Duck, Michael Watts, and °* Geoff, Glasby. Soxibe and trip leader, Murray Worsop.