This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
The trip was notable for the amount of physical and verbal abuse dealt out and received by all punters. Friday night was spent in the truck at the Holdsworth carpark. We sent the fit trip off with the rain and the Easys and Mediums settled down in the truck. A comfortable night was had by all except those sleeping next to Mark who had fo put up with 110db impersonation of a chainsaw. Saturday morning saw the mediums set off into the drizzle and the easys having to physically drag Lynley out of the truck in order to get going. A 10.30 start eventually ensued. A mobile snowball fight up the Gentle Annie past Rocky Lookout put paid to our plans of going down Carrington Ridge so we continued up the track and down to Totara Stream. Lunch was consumed by the stream and a leisurely walk down to the new bridge over the Waihine ensued. There was a minor delay at the bridge as Rachel's pack mysteriously became tangled around one of the wires. The shor wander along the ilais ended at Tony's favourite campsite. While Mark and Lynley looked for firewood, Tony and Rachel had a look around the flats for the mediums, to no avail. Getting back to camp it was found that there was a shorlage of wood and a freezing cold thign deep wade through the river ensued to obtain a decent supply of wood. The evening passed enjoyably eating dinner in front of the fire and everyone was in the pit at about 9. Then the trouble started. The next two hours resembied a cross between the Parliamentary debating chamber and a wrestling match. Everybody finally fell into an exhausted sleep at about 11pm. Sunday morning dawned clear but freezing cold. A slow start saw the punters away at about 10.30 and lunch was once again consumed on the banks of Totara Stream. The afternoon was spent struggling through quite deep snow to the top of the Gentle Annie. At this point Mark went on ahead with the truck keys in case the other trips were standing around in the cold. This turned out to be the case and they were therefore very pleased to see Mark. The rest of the trip wandered along a short way behind. The truck was a welcome sight as the cold punters reached the carpark that afternoon. In summary a really good trip, good company, good weather and a lot of fun.
Punters: Tony Stone, Lynley Whitford, Mark Johnstone and Rachel Binning.