This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Getting to North West Nelson was an adventure itself - the 6.45pm Aratika sailing became the 7.35pm sailing, At least all 44 of us got on, even though it was in dribs and drabs.
And what a windy crossing it was. This was obvious for those of us who didn’t spend the entire time in the bar, as the decks moved up and down. After spending ages collecting luggage at Picton we headed for our bue. The bus ride was incredibly long - it was growing light and we were still winding around hills. We managed to gat stuck in the md only twice. The second time we got stuck we all had to clamber out the emergency exit into heavy rain. Due to the length of travelling time, the aims of each tramp had to be altered and shortened somewhat, so what was actually planned for this trip and what we actually did were two different things. After sorting ourselves and packs out, and after attempts to pull the bus out of the mud had failed, we all headed up to Tribolite Hut for a mich deserved breakfast. Here the weather cleared up. Ve then all returned to the bue, finally getting it out of the mud, before all the parties split up. Our group, led by Richard Fergusson and Debbie Douglas, consisted of Alasdair Wallace, Doug Bray, Michelle Dawe, Mary Anne Wright, Rohan Harrigan, Bob Haig, Kerry Lister, Michelle Mars, Tony Alexander, Austin, Peter Panettieri, Darryl Wood and Lynley Whitford. We headed up the Cobb River Valley for a leisurely 1% hour walk before breaking for lunch. Croasing the Cobb River proved impossible at thie stage as the water was neck high. So we had to force ourselves to lounge
an the river bank longer than anticipated, catching up on some much needed sleep in the sun.
At about 4.30 we crossed over, when the water was only waist high. Metres from the river we set up camp and settled for the evening with the sandflies.
Day 2 dawned wet and windy, so we spent all morning in our pits. Ve had decided to head up river at midday, no matter what the weather. Acs we packed up the weather improved 60 it was decided that we would head up the ridge to the tops. It was a long and slippery walk, balf in the bush and half through tussock grass, which was hard on the hands while pulling yourself up. At the top the views were great, witb Lake Lily below us and probably the hills of Golden Bay in the distance. The cold weather forced us down quickly, so we had to find our warm weather gear before exposure cet in.
Once down the bottom of the hill ‘the guily below Lake Iron) we had to decide whether to keep going up the next bhiil to Bushline Hut, with darkness quickly falling, or to stay where we were. We decided to stay - a very cold, exposed area, made cozier with a fire.
The next day we woke to a fine, windy morning. Here our group split into 2, Five of them climbing the mountain to Lake Iron, and around Little Lake Silvester and Lake Silvester and down to Bushline Hut. The rest of us left camp at 10.30 and headed straight up the hill to Bushline Hut. At the top of the hiil we stopped to gaze at the wonderful views of Lake Lockett, the Lockett Range and probably the hilis of Golden Bay.
At l2@pm we reached Bushline Hut for lunch. As the rest of the group hadn't turned up after quite a while, some of us set out to find them. We found them on the road next to Lake Silvester, and without naming names, some had been skinny dipping!
So after stopping for a while on the beach at Lake Silvester, we headed back to Bushline Hut. From here it was an easy walk down a steepish road to the Cobb Dam, Here we set up camp for the night, but not before a quick dip.
After collecting enough firewood for a beach bonfire, we settled down for a lovely evening under the stars. Why is it that actors in the movies never get siioke in their eyes during a fire scena? The last day dawned fine and calm with all rearing to go st 7am as planned, but the bus did not come until dam. The ride back to the main road to Takaka Hill was long and windy - it made Skippers Canyon look tame in places. The last of our passengers were picked up from the Rat Trap Hotel at the foot of the Takaka Hill; a stunning hill in fine weather. We had two stops on the way to Picton. One at Motueka for “aaties”, and to drop Bob off. The other stcap was at Pelorous Bridge where some of the group had a swim and others leapt off the bridge. We arrived at Picton in time for the 4pm sailing, arriving back in Wellington after 7pm.
This report containe no misfortunes that happened to any members ofthe group. Unfortunately all the misfortunes appeared to fall on one person (apart.:-from the two who had car troubles when they returned home), This person ran out of time ta buy all the sustaining food needed, ie chocolate, and then left money behind 60 couldn't even buy any; took a travellers pack and not a trampers pack; got stung on the finger by something incredibly painful; froze half to death at least 5 times; and caught bronchitis. In spite of..all this I can still say I had a great trip. ;
HOLDSWORTH —- JUMBO Marie O'Leary and Fay Condon