This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
NELSON LAKES 15 17 MAY''92 by Stuart Palmer
We awoke to the beauty of Rainbow State Forest Park with the Beech forest covered in a light coating of fresh snow. It looked superb! The sky had the potential to clear to a bright day. The only thing that spoilt thts wonderful morning was the depressing murmurs coming from the adjoining fly occupied by our pessimistic leader These depressing murmurs turned the beautiful fresh snow into some nasty substance that would cause the onset of hypothermia, and the morning mist transformed into a potential blizzard.
These pessimistic murmurs from our leader, countered by the enthusiasm of the punters continued for the next hour of route-option discussion and indecision Finally a decision was made. The grass must be greener on the other side of the fencell So the Duchess -. was engaged to transport us to Nelson Lakes National Park! At1115am (the grade of this trip shall remain undisclosed), the team started: off fram Robert Ridge car park. The punters enjoyed the tramp in fresh. light snow while our leader's pessimism concentrated on the murky conditions.
At 3.00om we arrived at Lake Angelus Hut or at least DOC's Chateau Angelus - electric lights. double glazing, gas heating! DOC, ts this really necessary??! The team spent the next half haur thinking up excuses to justify a cozy night in the "chateau" The weather, no, even with our leader's pessimism it didn't look bad enough to justify @ night ial ina hut. No campsites; there were plenty of camping options in easy walking distance. Ah, we could claim that we intend to climb Mount Angelus before sunrise next morning. We just need to set our alarms for 5:30am, knowing that it will be too murky to venture up, so we will be forced to roll over in our pits and go back to sleep. It's settled then: a night in "Chateau Angelus”.
Having decided to spend the night in the hut, thoughts centred on dinner, and pasta. It was a mistake to entrust the responsibility of supplying the pasta with someone who had even failed to remember spread for his sandwiches. An unscheduled stop south of Picton had remedied the lack of bread but we remained without pasta. The chicken and veges with bread wasn't bad Those electric lights in Chateau Angelus must be connected to Electricorp's national grid. We had a few blackouts during the evening.
A good night's sleep only interupted briefly at 5:30arn by the alarm and the confirmation of the weather conditions. Too murky for Mt. Angelus, just right fora sleep in. By 8:30am it looked promising that the weather may clear (even in the eyes of our pessimistic leader) so we headed back out along Robert Ridge to catch the views we had missed the day before. We were rewarded with some superb views.
After a few snowball fights, a road march and some intelligent corversation centreing around "I spy with my litle aye", we arrived back at St Arnaud in time to demolish a litre of ice cream before the Duchess arrived.
An optimist had a great trip, even without pasta. The pessimist seemed to have an appropriately miserable time.
Team: Struan "That cloud is here to stay" Little Francis "Anyone for chicken.on bread" Smith Stuart "Here comes the sun" Palmer