This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Seven o'clock, Friday night August: 7, found twe Scots, yak one Englishman; three teenagers, one electrical engineer, ENY 1, ‘and one Newsletter editor, clambering aboard a spacious , Minibus..- After :.a quick power up the motorway, torturous * blasts of our various hated radio stations, and pieces ‘of enlightened conversation, we arrived at Walls Whare. Led by a mad, Gmeroverted sort of person’ like Murray (What... me? ~ Ed.), we. dragged together a bonfire PY, the sae grb ‘under the stars and moon,
Zz “ Saturday dawned’ bright and clear, a hint as to therest ~-~— ~- »e, Of the weekend. The three doubting "foreigners" ad crossed the Waiohine River by bridge while those of us with cotton shorts cans Nylon), and a liking for ehafed ‘legs and wet hanks; waded, Sank, then rose from the .° ' riye¥ €8 regroup on the track, The rest of the glorious morning was: spent in what seemed like a I continous uphill trudge to Cone, aes pa Jee old & We found a’ sun bathed, wind sheltered lunch spot on Cone with magnificent views of the rest of the Tararuas. The peace was Gisturbed only by the familiar WHUMPH! of Mike's primis. vigourously relighting itself. © Postuor the afternoon was rather’ windy, as we wan-
Oe e along Come Ridge through stunted Goblin forest, 2» and ill-placed cyanide possum baits, satopping only to climb gnarled trees and check cr aerrepepetent we lost Ree: almost non-existant track occas tonehl ys ” aad Aine were pitched near Totara Lodge - and’ the evening spent around a fire, under another cloudless, moon—Lit sky. The others amused themselves creating sparks from the fire to burn holés in the: fibrepile and. polypropylene clothes I was wearing. ~ Morning: proke and from above the iitataphe-cuaded: flats, ‘the sun rose into a clear sky to thaw our flies and warm our boots, .It was such a glorious day, we were forced to stop every five minutes:to take photos. Very soon we were getting £00" ‘hot, 80 we let the track ; feander: where it would. and Soul der“hopped along.the river. “ Mid-morning we, sropped as the: river was: getting wider, and while the others sunned themselves,:1I.foolishly volunteered to scale the near~vertical, 20 metre: bank to find the track — and then-back. down and. up. again with — —T my pack. From then on it was a gentle stroll through the bush back to Walls and another River crossing; to lie in the sun, eat lunch and reflect on a very ehjoyable and extremely sunny trip, Those on the trip were: Marshall Clark, Patric Lane, Ian Sennett, Mike Drake, Crawford and ole ery 2 Chatles Kew, and Murray Worsop(leader), en UM. af ee ye OY ma es ese