This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
. The bus wouldn't drive us up the mountain on: Thursday night So Pete Goodwin from the working party collected us in his van the next morning, I i oy eS ees ..We wandered up through the ski fields in: fine and sunny -:.. weather. A step on Pinnacle Ridce afforded us: fine views of .. National Park,:Ngaurvhoe, Lower Tama and Lake Taupo. In ‘the hazy. distanc® we could make. out Mt Tawawera and Mt Edgecumbe. There were still- large areas of snow along our route - remnants of winter's extra heavy falls. The view -. Was superb from Te:Heu Heu. The summit plateau still had a lot of snow on it, the summit was bare: Exposed ground ,.had.an interesting range of colours; black, grey, red and brown. It was along easy route to.Lower Tama Lake arriving .t;,. there at..5.55pm to set unm flies on.a grassy patch near the “n° lake edge. "y . Saturdgy dawnec clear but ¢licud soon closed in bringing rain, _,. followed by mist.Along the tidge.by Upper Tama’ mist became so sthick: it, forced a change of route. We dropped‘down below the sng, Cloud base and clearer skies in the east. The only adverse '" weather then was brief isolated showers. After lunch we continued sidling up around Ngauruhoe finally“reaching 5900 .,, feet, down a stream bed and into the south crater picking ‘up the track to red crater. By this time the showers had I... finished but the wind was still strong. Ngauruhoe was ' visible with thin cloud over thé summit. Red crater was _..impressive ifroin’the untracked side. Emerald lakes appeared like gems in the desert. Our day'a walk finally terminated at Blue Lake, Wind was some sause for cconcern since the area is rather exposed, However, the scenic setting was irresistable. The probiem cf protecting the tents was solved by - -making use of an_existing rock wali structure previous
a
I
war's
visitors had left. So the Tongue and Meat Reconstruction Co, set about demolishing one wall and building up the other three. That @one the first tent and fly was erected inside. What a difference still some flapping but no worries, The other tent was parked immediately next door with the door opento a lake view. Wind dropped to nil over night and a mainly clear sky with half - . moon illuminated the scene, Sunday dawned with a clear sky and a light breeze returning. Fine weather did not last. Soon thick mist and light rain were upon us. All tours were cancelled and we made straight for Ketetahi hut to greet the medium group still only half emerged from a trip to dreamland, By now the weather was looking better, later becoming sunny. A few of us made for the hot pools to soak up the heat and watch our wrinkles increase, That done, lunch was consumed at the hut. A quick trip to the car park and shortly after the bus arrived. On the trip were: Peter Jackson (leader), Christina Rush, Andrew Chisholm, Murray Middleton, Honora Renwick, Mike Moran, Pam Guest, Harry Smith. .
- a Te
grt