This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
BY MATTHEW CRAIG
There was a slight nip in the air as seven intrepid and slightly disillusioned trampers set out from Mountain House one Friday night in July. After several hours along Donnelly Flat and stumbling up Holdsworth (some stumbling more than others because of a lack of illumination), we came across the Mountain House Longdrop. A sure sign that we were on the right track! The devious fit people had very thoughtfully left some hot water in their billy. Shane managed to find some jam sammies attached to his bunk but they can't have been very tasty because the rats hadn't eaten them.
Saturday moming dawned overcast and after breakfast anda brew, we set off across Pig'Flat to the Totara Flats track. Alas, someone had removed the Totara Flats sign from the new, improved, as used on the Space Shuttle, norestick plastic DOC signs. Hence 20 minutes down the track we realised that we had gone too far, thanks to Shane's Kaweka-honed animal instincts, Pat's concise local knowledge and Ben's Bushcraft-taught map reading skills.
Score so far: TripLeader -20 DOC -1000 Page TI
The weather cleared by midmoming and we had lunch on the end of Totara Flats before the ascent of Cone Saddle. We arrived at Cone Hut an hour before sundown which didn't allow much time to collect firewood or pitch flys. The evening meal was chicken stir-fry and fruit salad cheesecake. Eric discovered that the secret to making hard cheesecake bases is to add more butter. (Rumour has it that Transit NZ are bidding for the patent).
Sunday moming dawned with a light frost dight by Mainland standards anyway) and after breakfast and a brew, we were off, setting a cracking pace. As we approached Smiths Creek shelter we met several other parties. One of these parties had a dog which took a liking to the trip leaders left leg and decided to bite it. Trip members who ° witnessed this incident were at a loss to decide who was the most shocked, the dog which was beating a hasty retreat, the trip leader (the injured party), or the dog's owner who was graphically chastised by the aforementioned trip leader.
We had lunch in the suh by the river just before the Smiths Creek shelter. From there we proceeded up the aptly named Puffer to the Kaitoke carpark. Soon after we arrived at Kaitoke the Fit trip tumed up and we sat down to wait. The sun started to go down, it began to get cold. At this stage the trip leader decided to put the billy on. Sure enough, just as the water was starting to boil the Duchess arrived with the Easy trip (similarly: bored) and the better-never-than-late Teenagers trip. The punters were : Matthew 'Bwana" Craig (dog-bitten trip leader and scribe), Shane "Sherpa" Connolly, Ben "It looks better in the dark" or "The Camel" Nicholson, Mark Larsen, Pat "Sniff" Duffy, Eric "The ving" Blumharat (the real man's cheesecake maker) and John "real men don't need groundsheets" Gniffith.