This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
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tt = wy “gnu Sn that dita hee = if s j " John RHGUes ‘+ he what. prings. a colour: stripper, a banker, a aaeee analyst, an’ accountant, an economist, a trainee electronics technician and two.. teachers: together at the dnd of Access Road 15, at 11:30 pm ona Friday,night? . Answer: Rohan Harrigan*s Kaimanawas trip, in -cele- -~ bret Lon-oF% Her Majesty’ Ss girthaay.| Tt bears the Jabel “fit”. Up at 0700, " away at. 08593 hardly the stuff ehat epics are made-of. Still, “this Revised Version of the; scheduled journey (a marathan .from.. the ‘Access Corridor: to. the upper Waipakihi}) involves only a toddle up-river followed by a gentle hess to a sunny campsite on the tops. - '- Pive. hours shouid do ,it. - o f Me But ‘éhdie I are ominous.«signs:- high cloud moves in from the west, and the ~ mediums get away first. We clamber to avoid the- first crossing of the’Waipakihi, then bow to the inevitable immersion of feet, :ankles, calves, knees, thighs and _ more delicate and vulnerable parts! Linked for mutual support, we watch in horror as a medium overtakes us, crossing alone. Has he no . sense .of propriety? 1 e ! es ra Gathering our last shreds of-dignity as the rain unfolds we press on, eight against the Liver, spurred and united by Harrigan hype. Some . famous names are tramping medium this weekend, providing us with the necessity, real or,imagined, ts prove ourselves their equals, or at. least. not:.too much. less.. * ae yp “e “The crossings are not difficult, but each drags warmth from our bodies, and invariably the next wetting comes before we have renewed the lost “heat by exercise. I have never worn so many clothes in a valley without wind.
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Bunch is joyless and not srcolonged, enlivened only by another moraleboosting team talk from cur leader. The tops, still dimly visibie but orobabliy even coider. than our present surroundings, are rapidly losing theiz appeal: while Waipakihi hut is acquiring an increasingly irresistibie magnetism. Though it is rumoured to be an FE day away, the vhought of warmth and dryness outweighs all else. The scenery en route is excellent, but @ proper appreciation of it would require less rain, less cloud, and more degrees Celsius. We have become preoccupied with time-Gistance calculations. At the joining of each side stream we. : ejoite in the lessening of the Waipakihi‘s flow. Our navigator calculat es that half an hour of torchlight tramping will be needed. But the navigator has it right, and at 6:00 pm the light in the hut window appears. .How many occupants, and are they friendly? Close approach reveals them to be of our own kind, including one patriarchal Tongue and Meat who, from the verandah, addresses the bedraggled arzivals on the subject of camping skills, and directs us to tent sites. behind the hut. We are gently chided for not having made camo earlier. Diplomacy prevents us from observing aloud that the quality of warmth and dryness inside a hut with a Shacklock 501 is at least one order of magnitusze better than that of a tent in the rain. Which is why we kept walling. — :
triarcn relents a little. He lends us a fly, and we are aliowed <9 cook. Then (oh joy of joys!) we are offered a brew, It is from Aids-free mouth to mouth sealing, with generous additions Datriarcn’s sugar. the brotherhood of Tongue and Meat 5 We- dine iipg to the patriarch, an inexhaustible repository of tramping: then retire, variously under nylon or before the blessed radiation Shackiock, There are 12 bunks, 22 bodies in the hut and 4:
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cix feet long, made: of feathers or Hollowfili and (most imporxhnymes with £1t? This, it is decreed, is our destination-for “Oo. The other parties are all leaving, and the hut is ours!
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ad iifting of the cloud in mid- -~morning pricks some We are, after ali, supposediy fit, but in danger of doing um trip with minor alterations of timetable. ' To rectify is sent to Junction top and another toward Umukarikari. Tay ide, we spend the day in earnest cultivation of ‘sloth, 3 and inertia.
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noon is punctuated by the arrival of mediums with wet sleepingh from a night of the kind recommended by ovr bearded fatheroNT agoubtless practising his own advice on some saturated river time the mattresses are curs, and the mediums lodge where. 2 vA scutherly comes through at midnight striking fear into the hearts of chose who would traverse the Umukarikari. ;
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Day Three is ushered in by the roaring of a host of medium primuses. With commendable efficiency, they have all disappeared by 6830. We ciean. “the hut and follow. The southerly is losing its sting, and the Umukarikxari-in sunshine provides a truly deiightful walk - the rooftop of the North Island, it seems. Too quickly it is over, and bushline approaches. 'But where are the mediums? And what of our credibility? S are sent ahead to catch the first, thereby restoring the second. sion accomplished, we finish with an icy bath at the road-end, and
Thank you team: Rehan Harrigan, Andrew Brown, Bruce Taylor, Struhan Littis, Murray Middleton, Tony Cross, Colin and John Rhodes. :