This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
"How long does it take to get to Wainui?". “About half an hour or so" About two hours later we pulled up at the wrong roadend and seven frozen figures fell out of the "Duchess" "Why didn’t you use the blankets if you were cold?” “Uh didn't think of that!" Was this a forewarning of things to come? "You'll easily find your way on to the track Look, up here, go down there, over that stream, up that hill, and you're away laughing” Easy for Lindsay to say as he drove away laughing
In fact it was easy. that was why we were doing the Easy trip with our trusty leaders, lise and Tom. and unofficial! coteader Tony (note the different spelling) We were ploughing our way up the track when we suddenly spotted the Mediums having a rest so we decided to rest too. After the Mediums disappeared in a spray of mud we carried on stopping at various intersections to check we were going the right way After a while we started heading downhill only to be brought to an abrupt halt by Tony and Toni deciding we were heading in the wrong direction. After much consultation with the map and checking directions with the compass we decided to backtrack. Fifteen minutes later we found the right track again (it had been hiding in a clearing) and we set off in the right direction Kathryn (fresh from England and on her first ttamp with the Club) wanted to know if this happened all the time We stopped for lunch in a sunny spot, had a brew, soaked up the sunrays then carried on We had to stop soon after to try and persuade Toni to take some disprin for a headache. “No, I'm alright", she said, then promptly vomited “Does this happen all the time?" came quietly from Kathryn. We set off slowly after a few minutes and meandered down the hill, waiting every few minutes for Toni and Ilse to catch up. We eventually came to the river and walked down to Paua Hut. The pot belly stove had been installed and we soon had it going. Dinner was prepared quickly and silence soon descended over the group as everybody munched their way through a filling meal that was finished off with toasted marshmallows. After lots of cups of tea, coffee and cocoa people disappeared into their pits and started snoozing. We were woken up after a couple of hours to hear Tony opening the door to somebody's cry of help. “Where are you from?" asked Tony. "The bottom bunk. I'm Kathryn", was the reply Kathryn's torch had died when she took her evening constitutional and she hadn't been able to see the hut. ending up down by the stream and then eventually finding the hut. A couple of hours later we were woken by the sound of a giam rat trying to eat its way into the hut. A quiet attempt was made to get rid of it, but it was determined to come in A short time later it started again. We lay in our pits waiting for Tony to do something, while he was waiting for us. Female stubbornness won through and Tony eventually had another bash at putting the rat off, which succeeded. The rest of the night passed peacefully and we got up late to a lazy breakfast in the sun. Toni was feeling a bit better but we decided not to.be strenuous so after stacking more firewood, cleaning the hut and eating more food we finally put on our boots and meandered up the river. We met the Fits upstream who were going to call in on us but being the unsociable bunch that we'd developed into,decided to keep going. Our pleasant Sunday was nearly spoilt when we nearly overshot the start of the Five Mile Track, but Tony (who always saves the day) put us on the right track. An hour anaes found us soaking up the rays laying on the grass at the roadend, with Kathryn asking, “Are all the Club trips like this?”
The Punters were
Ton van den Ende (Co- Leader) lise Seilas (Co-Leader). Sue Walsh Scribe Tony Alexander Kathryn Greig Catherine Greaves