This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
. SNOW. CAVING .- Labour Weekend _ o-, Claire.Silcock I ~
~ ee The-hardest thing.about holiday weekends:.is:.reaching—as ~*~ * es ”-decision on. how they would be best spent. Several oa J ds svalternatives. usually present themselves:from varying.” ae “degrees of body-bashing and masochistic feats to the more” . edate,.or .as mymother would say, -ladylike pastimes... ‘How the body craves for a respite from energetic activities -.-to just relax-and sloth, catch up on some..sleep, not to -.~ Jnerrtion; sorely neglected everyday chores,—but I ‘convince ~~ vi whyself:that. there will be: heaps of time for those. passive - '~ -aghivittes:in-my fast: approaching old age..- The hills. are where it's at or in this.case, Tongariro National Park and pn: club SDOWCAVING), trip .led by David Humm and-Ian Hadfield. “pavid! s enthusiasm was infectious and the time couldn’t pass “quick1y. enough as I was caught in the mounting. excitement. ye “ae: few days before-Labour Weekend were spent anxfously
ag watching the skies and pouring over weather maps making. amateur predictions. -- . — 3 ee L i we ae Me Man fo, tee OT Mes ‘However, it was looking good for the weekend and this was er ecgatirmed by the weather : fort teehee: A asi 1 Ge es" . Friday afternoon. finally. arrived afeompa nied? Be the usual" . “~ “last minute packing and "wha. /have I I forgotten" frown: on Ee pi my Facet} op 6 onc, batt vies ee Sy tehe Bie mere A ie tp ee “sre bs 7 r =e : iwi ie 4 a w= oo 2 1. 4 . . s i ba = : nm ad ez - = ested - 7% Ponte a.
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A last minute decision to have my locks trimmed at lunchtime was later regrered miserably as my ears froze solid. Wellington was a good place to -be getting away from that night as preperations for the Nissan Mobil 506 made steady progress. The peace and isolation of the Summit Plateau beckoned. ae oo :* 2 “ . t ee Ch The trip up sped by in a blur of taillights as people escaped from _ Wellington for the weekend and I slept, ate and talked my way to the’ Top of the Bruce. A suitable and almost comfortable bivvy site presented itself outside the club ‘hut but the excitement kept the sat kai urge at bay until Sxnatst eon finally ‘eet in aroun 1.30am. We “awoke to the cheerful - sdand of whistling (ie human kind) at 5. 30am and on extracting my head from my bivvy°bag I discovered nasty looking low cloud and mist. The scene around the club hut resemyged something of a disaster zone,. gear epresa Sy eEIGE NS : we Breakfast in the pit Accompanied by: ‘a nie: hot brew from Brian Hunt brought us nearer to the moment we wete beginning to dread. Frantically trying.to cram all the gear back into my pack which appeared to have shrunk considerably overnight, I was’finally ready for the plod to the plateau. .David and Mark provided some lighthearted entertainment in the form of a "Mickey Mouse" song but they soon fell silent from the effort of carrying full packs plus skis, boots and.poles. -We continued the trudge in sheep fashion, with the occasional frown skywards, hoping the weather would hold. The last of the lift tows and whooping skiers behind: sus, an ‘amazing peace descended upon ‘the area... Only the creaking of pack’ ‘straps and footsteps in sone snow broke ‘the silence. ot $4 - (8884 ‘ s en as ee oe The summit ° ‘Plateau was "reached in good time. Selection of: a suitable snow cave site was followed by-lunch in the sun and then the "big dig”. Our resident: engineer and quantity surveyor doubled up as»architect and townplenner for-a time while the excavation got underway;,and although progress was slow at first the deterioration in the weather was incentive to: speed: ne Ups 7 ve 7 7: Pa as wthis It took> a: massive cen, effort but finally by-6pm, “whet: .we-were all ‘theroughly exhausted, soaked and ravenous, the cave was declared _completediand a motley looking group of people moved inte our "home. sweet home." .-Competition. was fierce to be first to use our Ian Hadfield designediand: buiit;too before settling into our amazing snowcave. The end result of all our hard digging and scraping, blistered hands, cut fingers and-knuckles= (not..to: mention: heads) was worth it as our snowcave was vengey palekiabs: yee a Ee tal! i ee sevendd: hot» brewas anil dinner saw everyone in their pits: early in anticipation-of good weather in the morning. Not to be! We woke to mist and light rain and the decision to pit-bash was reachéd unanimously. At least we had lost on hour during the night because of daylight .saving, A pilgrimmage to the architectural designed 100 was my only venture outside during the day-although most of the party went for: a stroll in the.mist and rain at some time.. = at ie iy cil d eae ete a f at Aa. ee a eee Photo sessions helped pass "the time although the diwadvanta ages of fully automatic cameras was highlighted on this occasion as batteries had ta be retrieved from all sorts of warm places before the image could be captured forever.
The day passed-quickly despite: the weather and the hHardene dad pit ‘bashers even managed: té“catth’ip on some sleep. ' Some of us tried t6 eat our way through the afternoon and succeeded. That night we dined by canaigiiait. Monday morning dawned in typical — Weekend style - fine, calm and clear ‘ndot*to mention very crisp, and we dashed out to watch a fraction of the sunrise - it was toc: cold’ to ‘stay out I there’ any longer, than a few seconds.’ <_ : ")? at oe Ok re As we descended the: HeounH eT the weather déteriotated into mist and © rain once again but hothing could dampen the feeling of relaxation and . happiness obtained from spending an excellent weekend with a great crowd in an amazing showcave. Thanks to fellow trip members and leaders, David and Ian.:*Those on the trip: David Humm, Ian Hadfield, Colin Rhodes, Mark Taylor, Glen Curtis, Lindsay Fletcher, Christina Rush, Péter Jackson, Alastair Wallace, Bill Drake, Marshall Clark and Claire Silcooks ;