This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND It was around midnight and we should have been nearing the end of the drive up to the roadend; instead we'd gone slightly askew and had been tiki-touring around the district. I recall at some weird point, the Duchess stopping and another punter hopping in - where onearthdid he come from? Another time my dozing was interrupted when we stopped again and Lyndsay opened the door, "We have two choices, we can find a place to park along this road, spend the night there, then carry on in the morning, or we can keep going, we have enough drivers for that". Much to his disgust, the unanimous decision was to keep going. We eventually arrived at the roadend in the wee hours of the moming.
Everyone was moving slowly when they surfaced, and some of the Easy trip had the luxury of staying in their pits until after the Mediums and Fits had disappeared in a spurt of rain. After breakfast, we settled back in the Duchess while Roger and Geoff drove us over a small, narrow bridge (I'll swear Roger had his eyes shut as we went over i to the roadend proper. Roger then manoeuvred the Duchess in amongst a pile of what looked like well-spaced trees until we squeezed in between them - much to the amusement of some onlookers. Very soonafter, we had our packs onand had set off for the hotpools.
The walk in was very pleasant, trundling along beside the Mohaka River, but phote opportunities were limited due to the weather. After a couple of hours we arrived at Te Pula Lodge and had lunch. DoC was there, extending the warden's quarters and installing bats. A : small extension to the hut itself was also on the agenda. . We all felt that the work was a bit misdirected and should have been put into improving toilet facilities at the I hotpools - currently lacking a bit, with small deposits all over the place. After a quick lunch, we were back on the track and half an hour later, arrived at the hotpools.
endless stories. We were later joined by half a dozen canoeists, who had arrived earlier, and we all felt slightly overdressed when they hopped in the water! Sleep finally beckoned and weleft the canoeists and headed for our pits.
Sunday moming dawned chilly and overcast - the clear night hadn't resulted in a fine day. As soon as breakfast was over, we shifted camp to a better area that Geoff had spotted the night before. A major decision then had to be made. What were we going to do for the day? Geoff was going further up river with Shane, who was having withdrawal symptoms. Roger opted for another soak, while Robert and John retired to their pits to read. Austin, Heather, and I had a dreadful dilemma, but finally my tendon problem decided us, with a helpful hint from our trusty leader - the hotpools! It was at that time Roger retumed froma reconnaissance of the hotpools and said they were full of naked canoeists. We decided on an early lunch and to wander down later, hopefully giving them enough time to leave. We eventually left and had the pleasure of soaking in the tubs in solitude. With occasional showers cooling us and the water, it was lovely! We all turned different colours at different stages, : Austin beating us with her cooked lobster imitation. _ Roger finally surfaced from his pit, and after lighting the fire to warm up the campsite, joined us for a soak. Geoff and Shane arrived soorrafter with tales of snow all over the place. Austin, Heather, and I finally decided to get out, nature called, and our stomachs were rumbling. We thought our effort of 3 hours and 45 minutes wasn't too bad - Harry was to prove us woefully wrong!
Dinner was another great success and we were happily munching away when Harry and Michael arrived. The Mediums were meant to be camping at the hotpools on Sunday night, but had to change their plans. Harry and ' Michael had decided to carry on down as they didn't "want to miss out on the hotpools! Roger and Geoff then The areaaround the hotpools has been developed I since I was last there. The old tub has been replaced with : two new tubs and is surrounded by a wooden platform I with places to leave your gear. The hotpools looked really tempting so a couple of us went for a quick soak — before dinner. It had become quite cold and dinner, chilli I con cama, was a welcome sight and meal as it warmed I everybody up. After dessert we headed back to the hotpools for another soak. Roger and Shane kept us — entertained with their singing (which wasn't too bad) and I i j remembered that the hotpools were meant to be emptied at around 7:00 pm that night so the tubs could be cleaned (are you guys serious?!) This prompted quite a bit of discussion with some unusual comments coming from Harry before he quickly disappeared down the track - I don't think I've ever seen him move so fast! He eventually returned sometime around 1:00 am after spending about six hours in the hotpools - it must be remembered though, that Harry had both dinner and dessert delivered to him! “f 1:
It had been snowing throughout the whole weekend, and when we surfaced on Monday morning, the snow was way below the bushline. Roger informed us the temperature was 2 degrees C. No wonder it was a bit chilly! We left as soon as we were ready, stopped at Te Puia Lodge to chat to the Fits who had spent the night there, then carried on to the Duchess to wait for the other groups.
Our departure was almost as exciting as our arrival when we met up with a vehicle which had to back up a hill, looking as ifit was about to go over the edge, reverse over the narrow bridge, then back up a really gnarly little hill.
This provided us with a couple of worrying moments when the wheels started spinning on the clay, and the order was given for everyone to move to the very back of the Duchess so all the weight was over the rear wheels. The excitement over, we headed out for dinner with lively conversation keeping us entertained all the way home.
The official punters were: Austin (leader), Shane (converted to Easy trips), John, Heather, Robert, and Sue (scribe). The unofficial punters were: Geoff and Roger.