This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
by Ilse (or it is Else or Easel or ...) Seilis and Austin We are aware that the following trip report might understimulate readers minds but we really want to include it and who’s the editor anyway? We’ll be as creative as we can to try and stop your minds from slipping away, but all the same, no guarantees. One day, not such a long long time ago, in not such a far away place two passionately eager, stoutbooted, bemapped, becompassed graduates from the WT&MC leadership school organized and led themselves into the Orongarongas. They targetted Mt Matthews, neither had been their before. Upon finding the river was cold and wet, they took the siddle track in the bush. As they talked, oops, we mean walked, they took a considerable number of compass bearings and map readings and thus correctly located the turnoff to Whakanui track - never mind that their half-formed self-congratulatory jabber momentarily rolled back into their throats when round the next corner they found a cunningly placed four~foot carved wooden sign declaring “Whakanui Track" - a mere confirmation! Too much talking and not enough walking, Mt Matthews was only half scaled. It was getting on and they could already hear the mountain pit bulls (every bark is a pit bull until proven otherwise) and feared their chubby knees being targetted in an ambush, so they returned via the same (dry) route. A most agreeable day for those present, namely Ilse and Austin.