This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
Medium Trip Anzac Weekend, Urewera National Fark We arrived at Lake Waikaremoana 3.30am Saturday with strong winds howling around outside. It was a unanimous decision that we spend the rest of the night in the truck, With 20 of us in the back you can imagine how cosy it was cuddling up to someone else's smelly feet! We got up a few hours later feeling somewhat unrefreshed, had brekkie, then drove to our starting point.
We had a steady climb up to Ngamoko Trig for lunch where we enjoyed panoramic lake views, sunshine and buzzing wasps. From here we dropped down to the lake shore to get up camp. A noisy chorus of ducks kept quacking all night and we awoke to a morning so frosty the fly was stiff with ice. We had to crack the ice before we could fold it up.
Peter, our trip leader, went off to Park Headquarters to hire some rowboats while the rest of us packed up and followed later. We had a short walk to Lake Waikareiti on a well defined track then loaded up three dinghies with packs and people and made our way to Rahui Island for lunch. There was a varied style of rowing as each person took to the oars - direction and speed seemingly unimportant. We had the circular rower, the oars don't touch the water rower, the row till you get blisters rower and the floppy hat 'n sunnies rower to name but a few. After rowing right around the island we discovered a ladder and pole to tie the boats to so we could stop off and have lunch. One party member leapt into a boggy pond and enjoyed the mud while others explored the island or continued to row to the island. After lunch we rowed over to a sandy beach where we found a camp site amongst the trees. With sun, sea and sand a few brave people couldn't resist swimming in the cool, clear lake.
On Monday we rowed back across Lake Waikareiti and enjoyed the sunshine while Peter and Marshall returned the lifejackets. Wé all tried dehydrated ice-cream for lunch then decided to do a bit more tramping - after ail we do all come from WTMC. We struck camp on the edge of Lake Ruapuni. A bit boggy in places so a few volunteers filled all containers with water so we wouldn't lose anyone wanting to get water in the marsh after dark.
Tuesday morning we returned to Lake Waikaremoana. The truck arrived at 11.30am so we all piled in eager to spend the next nine hours sleeping, eating, card ; laying and dreaming of tramping with WTMC over ANZAC weekend,
The medium party members consisted of Peter Jackson (Chief photographer and trip leader), Marshall (tea maker and firelighter}), Lyn (chief cook and botanist), Nick (amazing oarsman), Mark (constantly hassled), Sarah (hairdresser), Andrew (owner of the biggest dinner bowl), Lynley (mud wallower), Bev (angora sox wearer), William (ditch digger) and Michele (journalist).